Legal Beat

John Yang, a Washington, D.C. attorney who co-chairs the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association's judiciary committee, pointed to several potential candidates for seats on the Second, Ninth and DC Circuits.

Two are sitting District Court judges nominated by President Clinton: Denny Chin, 55, of the Southern District of New York and George King, 58, of the Central District of California.

Two others are academics: Yale Law School Dean Harold Koh and Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu.

Then there's Ivan K. Fong, recently nominated as general counsel of the Department of Homeland Security, who was a deputy associate attorney general during the Clinton administration.

And if Obama wants to nominate yet another of his classmates from Harvard Law School, he could choose A. Marisa Chun, who previously worked in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.

One wild card nominee would be Bill Lann Lee, whose nomination to be assistant attorney general overseeing the Civil Rights Division ran into heavy Republican resistance. He ultimately served as acting attorney general.

Yang says he was encouraged by reports last week that Preet Bharara, who serves as counsel to Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., could be nominated to the high profile post of U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.