Schumer backs Feuerstein, Holwell, and Townes for seats on
New York's Eastern and Southern District federal courts

US Senator Charles Schumer today announced that he and the White House have reached agreement on another batch of moderate, diverse, and highly qualified consensus nominees to fill vacancies in New York's federal court system. Two of the nominees, Sandra Feuerstein and Richard J. Holwell, have been nominated to the Eastern and Southern Districts, respectively. The third, Sandra Townes, is currently undergoing a federal background check and would take a seat on the Eastern District of New York.

"I've said it before and I'll say it again. The judicial nominations process works best when all the parties involved pick up the phone and work together to come up with moderate, smart, and diverse judges to fill the vacant seats on the federal bench," Schumer said. "I look forward to shepherding these nominations through the confirmation process in the Senate."

Richard J. Holwell, 56, is an attorney with White & Case in New York in charge of the firm’s global litigation practice. Holwell has spent his 30-year career litigating complex securities, antitrust, bankruptcy, and other financial market cases. He has extensive experience in investigations conducted by the Justice Department, SEC, and other federal agencies. He graduated from Villanova in 1967 and was a 1970 cum laude graduate of Columbia Law School. After law school he studied at Cambridge University. He is a member of the American Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association, and the Law Society in London. Holwell is married and has two daughters.

Sandra Feuerstein, 56, has served as an Associate Justice of the New York State Supreme Court since 1999. Prior to that, she served as a Justice of the New York State Supreme Court, and from 1987 to 1993 she was a Judge in the Nassau County District Court. Since 1998, Feuerstein has been an adjunct professor at Hofstra Law School. She was a law clerk to a Judge on the State Supreme Court in Nassau County. From 1966 to 1971, she taught in the New York state public schools. Feuerstein graduated from the University of Vermont in 1966, and graduated cum laude from Cardozo Law School in 1979. Feuerstein has been named Judge of the Year by the Long Beach Lawyers’ Association and Woman of the Year by the Merrick Chamber of Commerce.

Sandra Townes, 58, is a state Appellate Division Judge. She has spent most of her career in Syracuse, but has served on the appellate court that covers Brooklyn for the last two years. She is originally from South Carolina and was a high school English teacher before she decided on a law career. She graduated from Syracuse University Law School in 1976. She spent more than ten years as a prosecutor in Syracuse and was elected to the city court bench. She was the first black state Supreme Court justice in the State's fifth judicial district. The Eastern District seat Townes will fill is being vacated by Judge Sterling Johnson, who is taking senior status.

"When Sterling Johnson, the only African-American on the Eastern District - an area with a large African-American population - announced his retirement, I told both the White House and the Governor's office that it would be most appropriate to fill his seat with another African-American," Schumer said. Townes will be the second African-American to serve on the Eastern District bench.