WASHINGTON, D.C. – President Barack Obama has nominated Nashville attorney Waverly Crenshaw, Jr. to a federal judgeship.
If confirmed by the U.S. Senate, Crenshaw would replace U.S. District Judge William Joseph Haynes Jr., who moved to senior status in December.
Crenshaw became the first Black attorney at Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis in 1990. He has been a partner there since 1994, specializing in labor and employment law.
Matt Burnstein, chairman of Waller, called the nomination well deserved and said Crenshaw would be an excellent federal judge.
“Waverly has been one of Waller’s leading partners for many years, in multiple ways, and has represented our clients with great skill and professionalism,” Burnstein said in a statement.
U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Nashville, also had praise for Crenshaw.
“Out of an outstanding field of candidates, President Obama is nominating a first-rate local attorney and community leader,” he said.
“Waverly Crenshaw will make a fine federal judge. I just hope the Senate confirms him quickly because he is needed on the bench now.”
Crenshaw was an assistant attorney general in Tennessee from 1984 to 1987 and a law clerk to U.S. District Judge John Nixon from 1982 to 1984. He graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1978 and earned his law degree there in 1981. The nomination now moves to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
