Judge Richard C. Tallman will be the speaker at Santa Clara University School of Law’s Commencement. Law School Commencement is Saturday, May 19th at 9:30 a.m. in the Mission Gardens.
Judge Tallman currently serves as an active United States Circuit Judge on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. His chambers are located in Seattle. He was nominated by President Clinton on October 21, 1999, unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate on May 24, 2000, and appointed by the President on May 25, 2000. He entered on duty June 30, 2000.
Prior to his judicial service, Judge Tallman was a partner in the Seattle firm of Tallman & Severin LLP from 1999 to 2000. He was a member of Bogle & Gates, P.L.L.C. from 1990-99. There he chaired the White Collar Criminal Defense Practice Group. From 1983-89 he was an associate, and later a partner, in Schweppe, Krug, Tausend & Beezer, P.S. At all three firms he also handled complex commercial litigation involving business issues collateral to white collar matters such as civil RICO suits, False Claims Act (or qui tam) "whistleblower" lawsuits, shareholder derivative suits, securities fraud, antitrust, income tax, and commercial bribery cases.
From 1979-83 he served as a federal prosecutor, first with the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington D.C., and then as an Assistant United States Attorney in Seattle. Early in his legal career, he served as law clerk to U.S. District Judge Morell E. Sharp, Western District of Washington. He tried more than three dozen civil and criminal cases, primarily in federal court, in his twenty-two years of legal practice and argued fifteen cases on appeal before commencing his judicial service.
Judge Tallman received his J.D. from Northwestern University School of Law in 1978 where he was Executive Editor of the Northwestern University Law Review, 1977-78. He recived his B.S.C., summa cum laude in Business Administration from the University of Santa Clara in 1975.
