North Carolina Lawyers Weekly
Judge Barbara Milano Keenan of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has announced that she will assume senior status on Aug. 31, creating a bench vacancy to be filled by President Joe Biden.
Keenan’s plan to take senior status was disclosed on the U.S. Courts website.
Milano’s duty station is Alexandria, Virginia, and the U.S. senators from Virginia, Mark R. Warner and Tim Kaine, announced that they’ve assembled an independent panel of lawyers to review applications and interview qualified individuals. The senators will use recommendations from the panel, and input from bar associations and experts, to recommend potential nominees to the president. The White House then will nominate an individual to be considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee. The nomination is subject to confirmation by the full Senate.
Keenan served at every level of Virginia state courts before being nominated to the Fourth Circuit in 2009.
She sat on the Fairfax County General District Court, the county’s circuit court, the Court of Appeals of Virginia and the Supreme Court of Virginia. She served on the Supreme Court from 1991-2010.
Nominated by President Barack Obama, she received her commission for the Fourth Circuit in March, 2010.
Born in Vienna, Austria, Keenan received an undergraduate degree from Cornell University and a JD from George Washington University in 1974. In 1992, she earned an LLM from the University of Virginia.
Peter Vieth
