[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 26 (Thursday, March 10, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 10, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                TRIBUTE TO JUDGES LATCHUM AND BIFFERATO

  Mr. BIDEN. Mr. President, I recently had the great pleasure of 
attending the Delaware State Bar Association's 70th anniversary 
celebration. The event was also a tribute to two of my State's most 
distinguished jurists, both of whom mark in 1994 25 years of service on 
the bench.
  The dual commemoration of their personal tenures and the Bar 
Association's anniversary could not have been more appropriate, in my 
view, because U.S. District Court Judge James L. Latchum and Delaware 
Superior Court Judge Vincent A. Bifferato, Sr., have had a truly 
defining influence on their respective courts and on the Delaware legal 
community.
  There are not many States, I would guess, where two such long-serving 
and respected judges would be known as Jimmy and Biff, but that is our 
way in Delaware, where not only size but spirit favors familiarity. So 
the Bar Association event was not just a tribute to great guardians of 
the law, to valued and admired mentors; it was also a tribute to good 
colleagues and good neighbors.
  Judge Jimmy Latchum has what you might call, in understatement, a 
very impressive resume. He earned his undergraduate degree from 
Princeton, and went on to law school at the University of Virginia--
which is known both in Judge Latchum's courtroom and in his living room 
as ``The University''--interrupting his education for several years of 
distinguished military service during World War II.
  He began legal practice as an associate in a prestigious Delaware law 
firm from 1946 to 1951, when he was named a partner. Judge Latchum also 
served as an attorney for the State Highway Department, as an assistant 
U.S. attorney for Delaware, and as an attorney for the State's 
Interstate Highway Division and the Delaware River and Bay Association.
  Then in 1968, President Lyndon Johnson nominated Jimmy Latchum to be 
a judge on the U.S. District Court for Delaware, where he served on 
active status until 1983. Judge Latchum was Chief Judge of the District 
Court from 1973 to 1983, when he took the senior status he now 
maintains.
  That's the resume. Now let me see if I can say something about the 
man.
  Jimmy Latchum--product of a highfalutin' Princeton-UVA education, a 
legal practitioner of the highest order, and a long-serving Federal 
judge--this same Jimmy Latchum is a notorious practical joker. In fact, 
the President of our State Bar Association, Dick Kirk, suggested in his 
remarks about Judge Latchum that some objects of his practical jokes 
had done legal research into whether such conduct violated the good 
behavior standard of his lifetime appointment to the federal bench.
  Jimmy Latchum is a native of Kent County, DE, a place famed for 
breeding good folks. And Jimmy Latchum is, in the most meaningful and 
fundamental sense, good folks. That, as much as any other reason, is 
why he inspires such affection and regard among his law clerks that 
they gather every 5 years for a reunion, and that 23 of his 35 former 
clerks attended a 25th reunion with Judge Latchum just last fall.
  In the tradition of Kent County, Jimmy Latchum is a remarkable story-
teller, with a down-home manner and common-sense wit that instructs 
even as it entertains. He is a very proud father and grandfather, not 
to mention proud husband to the former Elizabeth Murray McArthur--and I 
will just add that the true pleasure of the bar association dinner was 
that I got to sit next to Betty Latchum.
  Good folks. The same can be said of Delaware Superior Court Judge 
Vincent A. Bifferato, Sr.
  Judge ``Biff'' is the product of a Villanova University education, 
both undergraduate and for law school. His unwavering devotion to 
Villanova certainly rivals Judge Latchum's affection for Virginia, and 
underscores an important quality the two men have in common--a deep and 
sincere appreciation for opportunity, and a deep and sincere value of 
loyalty.
  Vince Bifferato became a judge young, at age 31, just 5 years after 
being admitted to the Delaware Bar. He had served a term in the state 
legislature and just recently joined the Public Defender's staff when 
in 1968 Governor Charles Terry, a Democrat, nominated him to be a 
Superior Court Judge.
  He was subsequently reappointed by Governor Pete du Pont, a 
Republican, and appointed as Superior Court's Resident Judge for New 
Castle County in 1992 by then-Governor Mike Castle, another Republican. 
The bipartisan character of Judge Biff's appointments reflects, in 
part, the character of Delaware's legal community, but it is also a 
meaningful tribute to a jurist who has upheld the truest trust of the 
judicial branch.
  Judge Bifferato's continuous service on the same court also speaks to 
the value of loyalty I mentioned earlier. The Superior Court is, to a 
great extent, Biff's court. He is, as Dick Kirk accurately described 
him, the Court's rock solid anchor; he is the hard-working, career 
Superior Court Judge who makes sure things run as they should as 
efficiently as they can without compromising the high standards of 
justice and service upon which he insists--and, I might add, when Biff 
insists on something, he does so with a certain undeniable authority.
  Judge Bifferato is active on several committees concerned with court 
administration; he heads Superior Court's Trial Forum, a continuing 
legal education and mentoring program that he helped initiate; and he 
is the judicial representative on the Executive Committee of the 
Delaware State Bar Association. In addition, Biff is a frequent speaker 
at forums throughout and beyond Delaware--from civic association 
meetings, to students groups from high school to law school, to police-
training classes.
  With all that genuine love of the law, and all that genuine 
commitment to community and to promoting excellence in his own court 
and through educational and training programs, it is in talking about 
family that the light really shines in Biff's eye--and with good 
reason. His wife, the former Marie Connor, now Marie Bifferato, 
Esquire, is subject enough herself for an address to the Senate, and 
rightly shares Biff's immeasurable pride in three children and, of 
course, those two perfect granddaughters.
  Good folks, Mr. President, These judges, Bifferato and Latchum, with 
50 years of combined service on the bench. Active in the legal and 
broader communities; dedicated and loyal in their work as in all 
aspects of their lives; intelligent, able, and honest. Good judges, 
good family men, good neighbors. We're lucky to have them in Delaware.

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