Inga Bernstein was nominated to the federal bench by President Barack Obama on Thursday to replace Judge Douglas Woodlock.
A partner at Zalkind Duncan & Bernstein since 2001, she clerked for Woodlock from 1994 to 1995, according to the White House.
A judge in Boston’s Moakley Courthouse, in January, Woodlock informed the president he would take senior status as of June 1. Woodlock was nominated by President Ronald Reagan in 1986 to replace Judge Arthur Garrity, who played a central role in the busing system used to de-segregate Boston schools.
After clerking for Woodlock, Bernstein joined the law firm where she is now partner. According to her biography on the Boston law firm’s website, criminal defense has been a “centerpiece” of her career, and she has worked first-degree murder, racketeering, wire fraud and other cases.
Bernstein graduated magna cum laude from Wellesley College in 1984, after spending her junior year at the University of California, Berkley, and she graduated from Harvard Law School in 1994.
Before law school, Bernstein was assistant director of the Boston Fair Housing Commission, enforcing fair housing laws and was a volunteer community mediator and director of a community mediation organization in Dorchester, according to her bio.
Judicial nominations go to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee where Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley is chairman.
