Superior Court Judge Touted for Federal Slot : Judiciary: Linda Hodge McLaughlin leads pack for Seymour nomination to U.S. District Court.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Linda Hodge McLaughlin is leading a select pack of contenders for a lifetime post as a federal judge in Los Angeles, The Times has learned.

McLaughlin, who has a reputation as exceptionally intelligent and hard-working, is being considered by Sen. John Seymour for one of five newly created positions on the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, said Floyd L. Farano, Seymour’s chief legal counsel.

As the Republican senator from California, Seymour chooses candidates for federal bench vacancies and recommends them to President Bush. Once the President nominates them, they must be confirmed by the Senate.

Seymour’s judicial screening committee evaluated McLaughlin and about two dozen other candidates and forwarded those names to the senator, said a source close to the process. But McLaughlin was the only candidate from Orange County to receive the panel’s highest rating, the source said.

McLaughlin, 49, is currently assigned to the complex litigation panel of Superior Court in Santa Ana. She arrives at dawn each morning to prepare for her trials, and often runs her courtroom on unusually long hours.

To keep her trials moving along in a backlogged courthouse, McLaughlin has lawyers argue their motions as early as 7:30 a.m. or after 4:30 p.m. And she insists on old-fashioned politeness in her courtroom.

“She’s a straight arrow and she’s incredibly smart,” said one prominent Orange County attorney.

Robin D. Reisdorf, president of Orange County Women Lawyers, praised McLaughlin as “one of the hardest-working judges in the state.”

If appointed, McLaughlin would be the fourth female of the 29 judges in the federal court district that sprawls from Orange County north to San Luis Obispo and east to San Bernardino.

McLaughlin drew attention last year for ordering reforms in the way youthful offenders are treated at Juvenile Hall in Orange. She set up a system that assured that the teens are not placed in padded rooms or in wrist and ankle restraints without adequate psychiatric supervision.

McLaughlin, who is registered to vote as an independent, has donated time to the county’s victim-witness assistance program and the Orangewood Children’s Home for abused or neglected children and has also volunteered to help process immigration amnesty applicants.

Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. named McLaughlin to the Orange County Municipal Court in 1980. Since her elevation to Superior Court in 1982, she has had a variety of criminal and civil assignments, including Juvenile Court cases and matters involving people with mental disabilities.

McLaughlin was born in La Canada and raised in Pasadena. A graduate of Stanford University and Boalt Hall School of Law, McLaughlin concentrated on tax, corporate and securities cases in private practice before taking the bench. She also acted as a disciplinary referee for the State Bar of California.

McLaughlin, who declined comment, lives in Tustin with her husband, a chemical engineer. They have five children.