Federal Bar Association

The Making of a Judge: Perspectives from Federal Judges and the Senate Judiciary Committee
2026-03-27 16:00 - 18:00 (America/New_York) | The Ritz Carlton, Pentagon City, 1250 S Hayes St, Arlington, VA, 22202, United States
About this Event
The Federal Bar Association warmly invites you to join our March 27, 2026 program featuring a conversation between the Senate Judiciary Committee, former White House Senior Counsel, and the federal judiciary on the process of being appointed and confirmed as a federal judge.
This program aims to educate attorneys, aspiring judges, or anyone wishing to better understand the federal judicial selection process. Panelists will offer insight into how judicial candidates are identified and evaluated, the role of negotiations and background investigations, and how the confirmation process unfolds in practice. They will also share candid reflections on challenges associated with this process, lessons learned, and practical advice for prospective candidates—while dispelling common myths about becoming a federal judge. Federal judges will complement this discussion by reflecting on their own pathways to the bench, offering guidance for those considering judicial service.
The program offers CLE credit and will conclude with a reception, offering a rare opportunity to engage directly with judges and key participants in the judicial selection process.
We hope you will join us for this unique opportunity to engage in thoughtful conversation about public service and pathways to the bench.
Presented by the FBA Younger Lawyers Division
Co-Sponsors: FBA Capitol Hill Chapter, FBA District of Columbia Chapter, & FBA Federal Litigation Section

Registration for this program is now closed.

Friday, March 27, 206
Program: 4:00 – 5:00 pm ET
Reception: 5:00 – 6:00 pm ET
Venue:
The Ritz Carlton, Pentagon City
1250 S Hayes St
Arlington, VA 22202

Presenters

Paige Herwig
Paige Herwig served as Senior Counsel and Special Assistant to President Joseph Biden from January 2021 until June 2023, where she led the judicial nominations team under White House Counsels Dana Remus and Stuart Delery; she additionally served as Associate Counsel and Special Assistant to President Barack Obama from 2013 to 2015 as a member of the judicial nominations team.
Ms. Herwig has also served as Deputy General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Commerce; Deputy General Counsel for the Biden-Harris Presidential Transition; Counselor to U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch; Deputy General Counsel for the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Minority Staff under Ranking Member Senator Dianne Feinstein; Chief Counsel to U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar; and Director of Governance and Strategic Initiatives at Facebook (now Meta). She clerked for Senior Judge Harry T. Edwards of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. She graduated from Yale Law School and Yale College. She is originally from West Des Moines, Iowa.

Caleb Jackson
Caleb Jackson works as Counsel on Senate Judiciary Committee for Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA), where he covers the Senator’s intellectual property, civil rights, criminal justice, voting rights, and judicial nominations portfolio. He previously worked as Counsel on Judiciary Committee for Senator Laphonza Butler (D-CA). Prior to coming to Capitol Hill, he worked at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law on federal policy and at Campaign Legal Center litigating voting rights cases. He began his career at a plaintiff-side labor and employment firm in Washington D.C. representing unions and low wage workers.
Caleb is a summa cum laude graduate of Hampton University, where he served as Student Body Vice President. He is also a graduate of UCLA School of Law, where he specialized in Critical Race Studies and served both as Co-President of the Black Law Students Association and Co-Editor-in-Chief of the National Black Law Journal. While an undergraduate student at Hampton, Caleb interned at CQ Roll Call and ABC News’ Political Unit in Washington D.C. He’s a proud native of Dallas, Texas.

Hon. Karoline Mehalchick
On July 11, 2023, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. nominated Judge Karoline Mehalchick to the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. She was confirmed by the Senate on January 31, 2024, commissioned on February 5, and sworn in on February 6. Previously, she served over a decade as a U.S. Magistrate Judge, becoming the first woman to sit in the Scranton vicinage and later serving as Chief Magistrate Judge.
Judge Mehalchick is a graduate of Penn State’s Schreyer Honors College and Tulane Law School. She clerked for Judge Trish Corbett, then practiced at Oliver, Price & Rhodes, where she became a partner in 2008. She will serve as Jurist in Residence at Widener Commonwealth Law School (2025–2027). She has held national judicial leadership roles, including service on the Judicial Conference Committee on Codes of Conduct and the Third Circuit’s Reentry Courts and Workplace Conduct committees. Locally, she helped launch the Prisoner Litigation Settlement Program and presides over the CARE court reentry program.
An active member of the Federal Bar Association, she was sworn in as President of the national organization on September 13, 2025. She is also a Past President of the Middle District Chapter. She also serves on the Ballet Theatre of Scranton board and leads constitutional discussions for students through the National Constitution Center.
Judge Mehalchick has been honored with numerous awards, including the PBA’s Michael K. Smith Excellence in Service Award, the LBA’s Margaret P. Gavin Award, recognition as a “Lawyer on the Fast Track” (2012), and designation as a PBA “Woman Trailblazer” (2020).
Tim Rodriguez
Tim Rodriguez is a litigation associate in Bradley Arant Boult Cummings’ Nashville office. Tim focuses primarily on appeals, class actions, mass torts, and products liability work. Prior to joining Bradley, Tim clerked for the Hon. John Nalbandian of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Before his clerkship, Tim served as Counsel for Nominations for the Senate Judiciary Committee. In that role, Tim advised two Committee Chairmen and a Ranking Member on judicial, executive branch, and other nominations under the Committee’s jurisdiction.
Tim has a J.D. from the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University. He also has a B.A. in Journalism and Political Science from the University of Missouri.
Gurpreet Sandhu (Moderator)
Gurpreet Sandhu is a Deputy Attorney General in the California Attorney General’s Office, Correctional Law Section, where she represents the State in high-profile federal class actions, appeals, and individual cases impacting the California prison system. Prior to joining the California Department of Justice, she practiced at the national firm Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani, LLP where she defended car manufacturers in product liability litigation, Song Beverly, and tort actions. She has a Bachelor of Law from the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, a Master of Law from the University of California Berkeley School of Law.
Gurpreet serves as a board member of the Federal Bar Association (FBA) Younger Lawyers Division, an executive board member of the FBA California Northern District Chapter, and member of the FBA Government Relations Committee.

Registration
Registration for this program is now closed.
Registration Fees
Private Practice: $100
Public Sector: $75
Law Students: $0
Cancellation Policy
Go to the FBA Online Portal and click on Events > My Registrations to cancel your registration online. Registration Cancellations received by Friday March 20, 2026, are subject to an administrative charge of $50. No cancellation requests will be accepted after Friday, March 20. After the posted cancellation date, registrations may be transferred to another attendee but not refunded. No-shows will be billed. Exceptions to the cancellation deadline will be made for emergencies and valid medical issues submitted with supporting documentation. Contact meetings@fedbar.org with questions or exception requests.

CLE Information
The FBA will seek 1 total CLE credit hours for 60-minute states, and 1.2 total CLE credit hours for 50-minute states.
Posted credit hours are estimates and subject to respective state approval and reporting rules. CLE qualifications vary by state/jurisdiction and the FBA takes every measure to collaborate with presenters to ensure approval. Accrediting agencies typically decide whether a program qualifies for credit in their jurisdiction 4-8 weeks after the program application is submitted. For many live events, credit approval is not received prior to the program. Documentation for self-reporting states will be circulated, upon state bar approval.
The FBA partners with ConferenceAdit LLC to track and report CLE credit for national conferences. Attendees are responsible for uploading their state bar information and tracking attendance through a dedicated webpage, issued in advance of the conference. Attendees will be instructed to check in and out of each panel to timestamp attendance. Approximately two weeks following the conference, personalized certificates will be issued via email.
Learn more about Continuing Legal Education (CLE) operations and reporting.

Email Communication Policy
By registering for this event, you agree to receive email communication from the Federal Bar Association and affiliated sponsors of the program concerning event details, Continuing Legal Education certification, programming changes, upcoming events, surveys, and post-event communications.
If you have any questions regarding this program, please contact meetings@fedbar.org

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Webinar: Criminal Sentencing: How to Tell your Client’s Story
2026-04-08 14:00 - 15:00
**Program hosted in (ET) Time Zone**
This one-hour CLE Webinar CLE is aimed at newer prosecutors and defense attorneys who practice at least periodically in the federal courts across the United States. Two renowned criminal attorneys will walk you through each of their perspectives on optimal strategy and presentation at criminal sentencing to truly tell your client’s story to the Judge and obtain the best possible outcome for your client. Our moderator, Judge Richard E.N. Federico of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, will introduce topics for discussion between the panel members aimed at providing an overview of the relevant law, including United States Sentencing Commission Guidelines, an explanation of the process, examples of “dos and don’ts” and case-specific examples from past sentencing hearings.
Register Now!
Presented by FBA’s Federal Litigation Section, the Younger Lawyers Division & the Kansas and Western District of Missouri Chapter

Presenters

Teny Geragos, Partner, Agnifilo Intrater LLP.
Teny Geragos, a founding partner of Agnifilo Intrater LLP, defends individuals in federal and state criminal cases at both the trial and appellate level. Most recently, Ms. Geragos helped secure an acquittal for Sean Combs for the charges of sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy in the Southern District of New York. Teny is particularly experienced in defending and investigating allegations of sexual misconduct, which involve complex legal issues and emotionally charged situations. She has represented numerous individuals accused of sexual assault, sexual harassment, or other types of sexual misconduct. Teny has also regularly represented victims of sexual assault and violence, helping them navigate the difficulties of reporting to the police, and cooperating with law enforcement investigations. Finally, Teny has led several internal investigations, including in the construction and healthcare industries.
Prior to founding Agnifilo Intrater LLP, Teny was associated with Brafman & Associates, P.C. for approximately eight years, where she successfully defended a wide range of criminal matters including sex assault, securities fraud, wire fraud, public corruption, tax evasion, narcotics, FCPA, and cases that have potentially serious collateral consequences, such as deportation.
Ms. Geragos has been selected as a SuperLawyers Rising Star for five consecutive years and publishes and speaks regularly on various legal topics ranging from “Gag” Orders to Protective Orders to managing electronic discovery.
Ms. Geragos serves on the Board of Directors of the New York Criminal Bar Association.

Dan Webb, Co-executive Chairman, Winston & Strawn LLP, Chicago, Illinois.
Dan is co-executive chairman of Winston & Strawn and one of the most distinguished and sought-after trial lawyers in the United States. He has tried more than 100 jury cases involving a wide variety of claims and been named a fellow of the prestigious American College of Trial Lawyers. Notably, Dan achieved international acclaim for his successful prosecution of retired Admiral John Poindexter in the Iran-Contra Affair. He served as the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois and has served in special prosecutor or similar roles on several occasions, including for the successful prosecution of actor Jussie Smollett in Chicago, for which he was named Am Law’s “Litigator of the Week” in December 2021.
Dan’s trial practice concentrates in the areas of major commercial, civil, regulatory, and white collar criminal cases. Among his jury cases are numerous successful complex commercial and white collar criminal trials, representing, on several occasions, large corporations in jury trials lasting two months or longer.
Dan has spent his entire professional life as a courtroom trial attorney and litigator. As the U.S. Attorney in Chicago, he spearheaded the “Operation Greylord” investigations into judicial corruption in Cook County, Illinois.
He received national attention for his work as lead trial counsel for General Electric, successfully defending it against criminal price-fixing allegations related to industrial diamonds, as well as for his representations of Microsoft Corp. in its antitrust litigation; Philip Morris in its sprawling tobacco-related litigation; and Verizon in obtaining a US$58M verdict in a patent litigation matter.
Dan delivered a historic win for BPI in its defamation action against ABC News relating to a series of reports by ABC News in which its broadcasters referred to BPI’s product in a defamatory way, leading BPI to massive financial losses. With BPI seeking over US$1.9B in actual damages, the case has been widely reported as the “largest” and “one of the most significant” defamation cases in U.S. history. After weeks of putting on witnesses to prove ABC intentionally and knowingly made nearly 200 hundred false statements about BPI and its product and with our team about to put on damages witnesses, the case settled. The settlement vindicated BPI and put the company on the path to recovery.
A team of Winston attorneys, led by Dan, conducted an internal investigation at the New York Stock Exchange related to the compensation of its former Chairman and CEO, Richard A. Grasso. Following Winston’s investigation, summarized in what is now known as the “Webb Report,” the New York Attorney General’s Office sued Grasso for the return of more than US$120M in compensation.
Other successes for clients in securities matters include obtaining favorable settlements for Ernst & Young in a securities class action brought by stockholders of HealthSouth Corp. and for Cisco Systems in a securities class action brought by the Plumbers & Pipefitters National Pension Fund and obtaining summary judgment for Scientific-Atlanta in a securities fraud class action.
On the antitrust front, Dan successfully represented Wyeth (Pfizer) against an antitrust class action relating to its patented potassium chloride product K-Dur®, C.R. Bard against claims of anti-competitive conduct relating to sales contracts with group purchasing organizations for catheters, and Monsanto against the antitrust claims brought by competitor DuPont relating to Monsanto’s patented Roundup Ready® weed killer.
As for other class action experience, one of Dan’s most significant cases was for Philip Morris. He served as lead trial counsel in Engle, et al. v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., et al., the first—and to date, only—class action brought by cigarette smokers for punitive damages to be tried to verdict. He also served as chief trial counsel for Lexecon in another high-profile class action civil trial that resulted from the failure of Lincoln Savings, the S&L institution owned and operated by Charles Keating, Jr.

Hon. Richard E.N. Federico, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit:
Rich Federico began his legal career serving as a Navy Officer in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps (JAG). He served on active duty from 2002 to 2015, including tours of duty as a military prosecutor (Norfolk, Virginia), the senior Navy prosecutor for Europe and Southwest Asia (Naples, Italy; Bahrain), defense counsel for Guantanamo detainees charged with war crimes and being tried before military commissions (Washington, DC; Guantanamo Bay, Cuba), and as Officer in Charge of Navy defense offices (Jacksonville, Florida). During these assignments, he also served at sea and led investigation missions to Afghanistan and Korea.
In 2015, Judge Federico left active duty and became an Assistant Federal Public Defender for the District of Oregon (Portland). While in Portland, he tried several high-profile cases in district court, litigated habeas petitions, and argued before the Ninth Circuit. He transferred to the Federal Public Defender for the District of Kansas in 2017, where he served until he received his judicial commission in 2023. Judge Federico continued to serve as a Navy JAG in the Reserves, first as an appellate defense counsel and later as a military judge. He retired from the Navy in July 2024 at the rank of Captain.
Judge Federico was confirmed by the U.S. Senate and received his commission from President Biden to serve as a Circuit Judge in December 2023. He assumed office and joined the Tenth Circuit on December 14, 2023. He is an honors graduate of the Georgetown University Law Center (LL.M., 2012), University of Kansas School of Law (J.D., 2002), and Indiana University School of Journalism (B.A., 1999).

Registration
Register Now!

Live Broadcast | FBA Member: $0
Live Broadcast | Nonmember: $95
On-Demand Broadcast | FBA Member: $50
On-Demand Broadcast | Nonmember: $95

CLE
Please note: CLE for this webinar has not been pre-approved.
MyLaw and the FBA will seek 1.0 General CLE credit hours in 60-minute states, and 1.2 General CLE credit hours in 50-minute states.
Posted credit hours are estimated and subject to respective state approval and rounding rules. CLE qualifications vary by state/jurisdiction.
For questions regarding this program, please contact MyLaw CLE by email: registration@mylawcle.com or
