WASHINGTON (August 2, 2011) — President Barack Obama on Tuesday nominated Miranda Mai Du to serve on the U.S. District Court for the District of Nevada.  If confirmed, Ms. Du would be only the third Asian Pacific American in U.S. history to serve as an Article III judge outside of the east and west coasts. She would also become the first-ever Asian Pacific American to serve as an Article III judge in Nevada.

“Miranda Du will be an esteemed addition to the Federal bench for the people of Nevada,” President Obama said. “I am grateful for her dedication to public service.”

The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, the national association of Asian Pacific American attorneys, judges, law professors and law students, representing the interests of over 40,000 attorneys and 62 local Asian Pacific American bar associations, applauded the president for his selection of Du.

“Ms. Du’s nomination demonstrates President Obama and Senator Reid’s continued commitment to promoting qualified, diverse nominees to the federal bench,” said Paul O. Hirose, president of NAPABA. “An Asian Pacific American has never before served as an Article III judge in Nevada, and we applaud the Obama Administration’s dedication to ensuring a diversity of perspectives on the courts.”

The U.S. Census reports a growing Asian Pacific American population in Nevada. In 2010, the Asian Pacific American community in Nevada had grown to approximately nine percent of the population. Of the 139 active Article III judgeships in the Ninth Circuit, of which Nevada is a member, only 10 are currently Asian Pacific Americans and none serve in Nevada.

“We applaud President Obama for his continued commitment to a diverse federal judiciary by nominating Miranda Du to serve as a judge on the United States District Court for the District of Nevada,” said Karen K. Narasaki, president and executive director of the Asian American Justice Center, member of Asian American Center for Advancing Justice. “We also applaud Senator Reid for his support of Ms. Du and for recognizing the needed perspective she will bring to the judiciary in the state with the fastest growing Asian American population.”

Since 1994, Ms. Du has practiced with the firm of McDonald Carano Wilson LLP in Reno, Nevada, where she is a partner. She is the Chair of the Employment & Labor Law group, and her practice focuses on litigating employment and complex civil cases.

She was included in Mountain States Rising Stars, Super Lawyers in 2009, selected as a “Top 20 under 40” Young Professionals in the Reno-Tahoe Area in 2008, and nominated as a Woman of Achievement by the Nevada Women’s Fund in 2007.

Ms. Du has also served as a Commissioner on the Nevada Commission on Economic Development since 2008. She graduated from the University of California-Berkeley (Boalt Hall) in 1994, and from the University of California-Davis with Honors in 1991.

Ms. Du left Vietnam with her family by boat when she was eight years old, and immigrated to Alabama after spending a year in refugee camps in Malaysia.

NAPABA and AAJC join in thanking President Obama for nominating Ms. Du and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid for recommending her to the President.

The Asian American Justice Center (www.advancingequality.org), a member of Asian American Center for Advancing Justice, works closely with its sister organizations – the Asian American Institute in Chicago (www.aaichicago.org), the Asian Law Caucus (www.asianlawcaucus.org) in San Francisco and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center (www.apalc.org) in Los Angeles – to promote a fair and equitable society for all by working for civil and human rights and empowering Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and other underserved communities. ο