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Jonathan R. Chapman was an assistant United States attorney for the District of Maine from 1989 to 2019. He served as criminal chief from 2002 to 2019. Richard W. Murphy was an assistant United States attorney for the District of Maine from 1990 to 2019. He served as first assistant U.S. attorney from 2010 to 2019.
The U.S. Senate is to be commended for its recent prompt and bipartisan confirmation of Stacey Neumann as a United States district judge for the District of Maine. When the Senate convenes this month, it should vote similarly to confirm Julia Lipez, now a justice on the Maine Superior Court, to be a judge on the First Circuit Court of Appeals.
We are retired assistant United States attorneys for the District of Maine who worked closely with both Judge Neumann and Justice Lipez as their supervisors and mentors when they were federal prosecutors. They are both exceptional people and lawyers and we believe that both will be excellent federal judges.
Sen. Susan Collins commented during Stacey Neumann’s confirmation vote that Neumann “will faithfully uphold our nation’s laws and that she will serve the State of Maine and our nation well.”
Sen. Angus King said she “has that quality of fairness and has the quality of temperament that is so important to a successful judicial career.”
We believe those words apply equally to Justice Lipez, and hope that Sen. Collins, Sen. King and the full Senate will vote to confirm her nomination as well.
President Joe Biden nominated Justice Lipez in May and in July the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to recommend that the full Senate confirm her nomination. She earned a unanimous “well qualified” rating from the American Bar Association, the organization’s highest rating.
When Gov. Janet Mills nominated Justice Lipez to the Superior Court in 2022, the Maine Senate voted unanimously to confirm her nomination. Justice Lipez’s tenure on the Superior Court has been widely praised by those who have appeared before her. When the Maine State Bar Association endorsed her nomination earlier this year, it observed that the attorneys surveyed described Justice Lipez as “fair,” “reasonable” and “respected for her great legal mind, judicial temperament, and legal writing expertise.”
This came as no surprise to us. During her tenure as an assistant United States attorney, Justice Lipez prosecuted some of the office’s most complex and impactful cases. Appellate advocacy soon became her primary focus, as she argued numerous cases before the First Circuit Court of Appeals. Her expertise in appellate practice led the United States attorney to appoint her appellate chief in 2019.
Justice Lipez always conducted herself with unwavering integrity and professionalism, exemplifying the highest ideals of the United States Department of Justice. We are confident that she would demonstrate the same qualities of integrity, professionalism and skill as a judge of the First Circuit Court of Appeals.
Justice Lipez’s relationship with our law enforcement partners was one of mutual respect and admiration arising out of the leadership she demonstrated with those partners. To the victims of crime whose causes she championed, Justice Lipez’s steady hand and calm presence were, to be sure, enormously comforting. To her colleagues in the United States Attorney’s Office, Justice Lipez was a trusted friend and a respected adviser — a true “lawyer’s lawyer.” We observed on a regular basis that Justice Lipez’s colleagues in the bar and the judges before whom she practiced similarly held her in high regard. Justice Lipez’s wisdom and commitment to equal justice under the law were always on full display during the years we worked together at the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
We were both fortunate to have long careers practicing law in Maine and have had the privilege of appearing before many highly respected judges here who exercised superb judicial temperament and even-handed judgment, even during high conflict litigation and passionate oral arguments. We know Justice Lipez well from working with her as she dealt with many challenging experiences inside and outside of the courtroom. We are confident that she would carry on the finest traditions of the federal judiciary of Maine and the United States. We urge the Senate to vote to confirm her nomination.
