U.S. Senate Confirms John B. Owens to the Ninth Circuit

John B. Owens, JD ‘96
John B. Owens, JD ’96 (Photo courtesy of John B. Owens, ‘JD ’96)

The U.S. Senate confirmed John B. Owens, JD ’96, to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in April by a vote of 56 to 43. The seat was the nation’s longest-existing judicial vacancy, dating back to Judge Stephen S. Trott who took senior status in 2004.  Owens was nominated by President Obama in August 2013 and took his seat soon after confirmation. He is currently the youngest serving federal appellate court judge in the nation. Owens was awarded the American Bar Association’s highest rating of “unanimously well qualified to serve” on the federal appellate bench.

A highly regarded federal prosecutor with more than 11 years of service, Owens has prosecuted a broad range of criminal cases. In 2001, he became an assistant U.S. attorney in the Central District of California.  He transferred to the Southern District of California in 2004 and became the chief of its criminal division in 2010.  As a prosecutor, Owens focused on white-collar and border crime prosecutions, and his extensive trial and appellate experience earned him awards from the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Secret Service, and other federal law enforcement agencies.  He left the U.S. Attorney’s Office in 2012 to become a partner at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP, focusing on complex business and Supreme Court litigation.

After graduating from Stanford Law School and earning the Stanford Law Review Board of Editors Award, Owens served as a law clerk first to Judge J. Clifford Wallace on the Ninth Circuit and then for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Editor’s Note: News that Michelle Friedland, JD ’00 (BS ’94), was confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve on the Ninth Circuit came just as Stanford Lawyer went to print. We will report on this in the next issue.