Clinton Nominates S.F. Attorney for 9th Circuit Seat

President Clinton on Wednesday nominated San Francisco attorney Barry P. Goode to a judgeship on the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

Goode, 50, is a business litigator at McCutchen, Doyle, Brown & Enersen law firms. He has specialized in representing large corporations in environmental suits, including the massive case stemming from the contamination at the Stringfellow acid pits toxic dump site in Riverside County.

Goode represented a group of 18 companies, including several chemical firms, that in August 1992 reached a settlement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state of California to provide about $150 million to cover the initial cleanup of the site.

A New York native, Goode is a graduate of Kenyon College and Harvard Law School. His first job was as a special assistant for Sen. Adlai E. Stevenson III (D-Ill.) from 1972 to 1974. Goode then moved to San Francisco and joined the McCutchen firm.

He has been active in Democratic politics, contributing $1,000 to the Clinton presidential campaign in 1992. He also served as co-founder of Northern California Lawyers for Clinton-Gore.

Goode’s nomination--as well as that of San Francisco labor lawyer Marsha Berzon, tapped by Clinton for a 9th Circuit seat earlier this year--must be confirmed by the Senate. Although the Senate has been slow to approve a number of the president’s judicial nominees, it already has confirmed three individuals for the 9th Circuit this year--Susan Graber, a former Oregon Supreme Court justice; Margaret McKeown, a Seattle corporate lawyer, and Ron Silverman, a former federal magistrate judge in Arizona.