[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 15]
[Senate]
[Page 21647]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                  THE NOMINATION OF KARON OWEN BOWDRE

  Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, in just a few minutes we will be voting 
on a Federal judge nominee for the Federal District Court of the 
Northern District of Alabama, Karon Owen Bowdre. Senator Shelby and I 
are pleased that President Bush chose to nominate her. Her nomination 
moved through the committee and will be up for a vote in just a few 
minutes.
  Karon Bowdre is a first-rate judicial nominee. Karon Bowdre has been 
a student, a legal practitioner, and a professor of law. She graduated 
cum laude from the Cumberland School of Law, where she served as 
associate editor of the Cumberland Law Review. Cumberland may be the 
largest school in Alabama. It is an excellent law school.
  After graduating from law school Mrs. Bowdre served as a law clerk 
for the Honorable J. Foy Guin, Jr. in the Federal District of Northern 
Alabama, the court to which she has been nominated. She is very 
familiar with the Federal district court, having clerked and practiced 
there.
  Judge Guin, a wonderful Federal judge, has taken senior status. He 
was number one in his class at the University of Alabama School of Law. 
His father was an excellent practitioner. I had the honor of practicing 
in his law firm immediately after his going on the bench in Birmingham. 
Mrs. Bowdre has a good background. She clerked for the Federal judge in 
the very district that she will be serving. Prior to becoming a full-
time professor, Mrs. Bowdre spent several years as associate and 
partner, practicing law at the well-respected law firm of Rives & 
Peterson in Birmingham, our State's largest city. Rives & Peterson is 
an outstanding firm and her serving as partner in that firm is proof of 
her legal ability.
  During a substantial part of that practice, she litigated a number of 
cases in the Federal court system. For the last 11 years, Mrs. Bowdre 
has been teaching students about the rule of law. As a professor and 
director of the Legal Research and Writing Program at the Cumberland 
School of Law, she has authored numerous articles on insurance law and 
legal ethics. She has established a reputation as a professor who 
insists on quality work from students, and high ideals and high ethics.
  In addition, she has been called to testify as a legal expert on 
insurance issues and has been involved in lecturing at Continuing Legal 
Education seminars.
  Mrs. Bowdre knows how to deal with lawyers, with witnesses, and with 
parties. These experiences have no doubt prepared her for service on 
the Federal bench.
  Her reputation as a lawyer and as a scholar has earned her broad 
support in the community. I would like to quote a letter submitted by 
perhaps one of the most successful plaintiff lawyers in Alabama, Jere 
Beasley. Even though Mrs. Bowdre, as an insurance defense attorney, was 
generally arguing the opposite position of Mr. Beasley, he had this to 
say on her behalf.

       I have known Karon for a number of years and believe that 
     she will be an outstanding U.S. District Judge. She will have 
     wide acceptance from lawyers . . . regardless of whether they 
     represent plaintiffs or defendants. While my practice is one 
     that represents plaintiffs only, I am convinced that Karon 
     will be fair and competent to all concerned and that is all 
     that any lawyer should ask of a judge. She is highly 
     qualified and, in my opinion, will do an outstanding job.

  Her integrity, experience, and commitment to the rule of law are 
outstanding.
  I commend Chairman Leahy for placing her on the Senate Judiciary 
Committee agenda last month and for moving the nomination. I recommend 
her to my colleagues in the Senate without reservation.
  I served for almost 15 years--12 years as U.S. Attorney and 2\1/2\ as 
Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Federal court. Those 15 years of 
practice full-time in Federal court gave me a basis to appreciate the 
value of a good Federal judge. When you go to court every day and you 
are there before a Federal judge who has a lifetime appointment, they 
can afford to be irritable, if they so choose, and there is nothing you 
can do about it. This knowledge makes you realize the importance of 
good Federal judges.
  I am confident that Mrs. Bowdre will be the kind of judge that will 
serve the litigants and lawyers well that appear before her. Day after 
day and hour after hour she will give her best service to the country, 
and she will give her honest and best rulings in case after case that 
comes before her. You can't ask for more than that.
  She has integrity, outstanding legal ability, and broad experience. 
She will be an outstanding Federal judge. I am honored to have 
submitted her name. I am confident she will be confirmed in a few 
minutes.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Stabenow). The Senator from North Dakota.

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