Senate confirms Manish Shah for federal bench in Chicago

WASHINGTON–The Senate on Wednesday confirmed on a 95-0 roll call vote the nomination of federal prosecutor Manish Shah to be a U.S. District Court Judge for the Northern District of Illinois based in Chicago.

What I wrote about Shah last September:“President Barack Obama on Thursday tapped Manish Shah, a federal prosecutor, to be a federal judge in the Chicago-based Northern District of Illinois.

Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) took the lead on making the Shah recommendation to the White House, a selection concurred with by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) under a system they have developed in sharing the power they have to send names to the president for consideration.

“Manish Shah’s stellar record in working with former U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald makes him an outstanding candidate to be the next federal district court judge for Northern Illinois, Kirk said in a statement.

“He’s the most experienced prosecutor we have, and I will continue to work with Senator Durbin to make sure we have highly-skilled candidates like Shah to help strengthen our courts and clean up Illinois.” Durbin said in a statement, “Manish Shah has served with distinction as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, and he will bring a wealth of knowledge and legal acumen to the federal bench in Northern Illinois.

“I firmly support his nomination today by President Obama and look forward to working Senator Kirk to see his nomination considered in the Senate Judiciary Committee and swiftly confirmed by the full Senate.”

Shah’s bio from release by Kirk and Durbin office... Manish Shah, age 40, was born in New York. His parents emigrated from India and raised their two sons in West Hartford, Conn. Shah attended Stanford University and graduated with honors and distinction. He attended the University of Chicago Law School and graduated with honors. Shah and his wife Joanna Grisinger, who teaches at Northwestern University, currently live in Chicago. After law school, Shah was a litigation associate at Heller Ehrman in San Francisco and clerked for Hon. James B. Zagel of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Shah joined the Chicago U.S. Attorneys Office in September 2001 and prosecuted violent crime, international drug trafficking, complex fraud and public corruption. Together with a team of prosecutors and federal agents, he investigated and prosecuted a series of cases arising out of the City of Chicagos Hired Truck Program and Office of Intergovernmental Affairs. During his career at the U.S. Attorneys Office Shah served in several leadership positions. He was a Deputy Chief of the General Crimes Section and the Financial Crimes and Special Prosecutions Section, and he was the Chief of the Appellate Section. Currently, Shah is the Chief of the Criminal Division and is responsible for supervising the prosecutions in the Northern District of Illinois handled by the approximately 130 Assistant United States Attorneys.