[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 120 (Thursday, September 11, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S9162]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          NOMINATIONS OF JANET HALL AND CHRISTOPHER F. DRONEY

  Mr. DODD. Mr. President, I want to briefly say to my colleagues, we 
will vote in a few minutes on two nominees for the Federal district 
court bench, Janet Hall and Christopher Droney.
  Senator Lieberman and I have appeared before the Judiciary Committee 
on their behalf. I see our colleague from Alabama here on the floor, 
who is a member of that committee and who very graciously heard the two 
nominees.
  They are two very highly confident, very qualified nominees. Janet 
Hall has superlative work experience, both in government service and in 
private practice. She has worked in the Antitrust Division of the 
Justice Department from 1975 to 1979. She later joined one of the 
finest law firms in the State of Connecticut, Robinson and Cole, where 
she has been a partner since 1982. She has appeared before Federal, 
State, and appellate courts, and even the U.S. Supreme Court, and her 
work has focused primarily on complex commercial litigation. In short, 
she is a very, very fine nominee.
  She is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College and the New York 
University School of Law. She has received numerous awards and 
recognitions including Mount Holyoke's Alumnae Medal of Honor, and she 
has served on the Board of the Connecticut Bar Foundation since 1993. 
She also serves on the Parents' Advisory Committee of her hometown high 
school and has volunteered in numerous other activities in her 
community.
  She is a very fine lawyer, a very fine person, very community 
oriented, and she brings wonderful legal knowledge and expertise to 
this nomination. I am confident that my colleagues across political 
lines here will be very proud of their vote in casting it this 
afternoon for Janet Hall to be a district court judge in Connecticut.
  The other nominee is Christopher F. Droney. Some of our colleagues 
know Christopher Droney. He has been our U.S. attorney in Connecticut 
for the last 4 or 5 years and a very successful one. He is known as one 
of the leading U.S. attorneys in the country for his anticrime efforts, 
and in particular for fighting juvenile crime.
  I might point out that he also knows something about what it is like 
to be in elective office. He served as the mayor of West Hartford, CT, 
and did a wonderful job there. He is a graduate of the University of 
Connecticut Law School, where he was on the Law Review. He was named 
Citizen of the Year by the Connecticut District of the Boy Scouts of 
America, and he received the Distinguished Law Enforcement Award from 
the Hartford Police Union. He also received special recognition award 
from the Spanish-American Merchants Association. He is very community-
oriented and very successful in his community activities. He is a 
member of the Federal Bar Council, a member of the St. Timothy Roman 
Catholic Church in his community, and very involved in the YMCA and 
YWCA in our State, as well.
  Again, given his background experience as a U.S. attorney, I think my 
colleagues can feel very, very proud, Mr. President, in casting a vote 
this afternoon to confirm the nomination of Christopher Droney, as 
well, to be a district court judge in Connecticut. I urge support for 
these nominees. I think they will do us all proud. The Senate can be 
proud of the work they will perform on behalf of all of us. I yield the 
floor.

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