Gregory Williams – Nominee to the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware

A fixture of the Delaware legal community, Fox Rothschild partner Gregory Williams is poised for a smooth confirmation to the Delaware federal bench.

Background

Gregory Brian Williams attended the Millersville University of Pennsylvania, getting his B.A. and B.Sc. in 1990. After graduating, Williams served in the Army Reserve until 1992, when he attended and got a J.D. from Villanova University School of Law in 1995.

Williams subsequently joined the Wilmington, Delaware office of Fox Rothschild LLP, becoming a Partner in 2003. Williams is still with the firm.

History of the Seat

Williams has been nominated for a vacancy opened by Judge Leonard Stark’s elevation to the U.S. Court of Appeals on the Federal Circuit. Williams was recommended for the seat by Delaware Senators Carper and Coons.

Legal Experience

Williams has spent his entire legal career at the firm of Fox Rothschild, where he focused primarily on intellectual property and commercial law. Among his notable cases at the firm, Williams represented the pharmaceutical company Ethypharm SA France in an antitrust suit against Abbott Laboratories. See Ethypharm SA France v. Abbott Labs., 271 F.R.D. 82 (D. Del. 2010). He was also lead counsel in defending Intervet, Inc. against an infringement suit for porcine circovirus vaccines. See Wyeth LLC v. Intervet, Inc., 771 F. Supp. 2d 334 (D. Del. 2011). Outside of Delaware, Williams defended Megabus in a D.C. suit for racial discrimination, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and assault. See Davis v. Megabus Northeast LLC., 301 F.Supp.3d 105 (D.D.C. 2018).

Williams has also handled appellate matters, including arguing before the Delaware Supreme Court in an eminent domain case involving the Delaware Department of Transportation. See Lawson v. State, 72 A.3d 84 (Del. 2013).

Writings and Statements

Outside of his role at Fox Rothschild, Williams has been active in the Delaware legal community, including serving as President of the Delaware State Bar Association and as Chair of the state’s Judicial Nominating Commission. In his various capacities, Williams has sometimes spoken and written on the law. For example, in 1999, Williams was interviewed as part of an article discussing the effect of Y2K. See The Millenium Bug, Journal of Business Strategy (1998). He also spoke in favor of electronic filing in Delaware federal courts. See Sean O’Sullivan, U.S. District Court Starts Electronic Filing; Legal Documents Will Be Available on Web, The News Journal, Mar. 6, 2005.

Overall Assessment

While many of Biden’s judicial nominees have attracted strong GOP opposition, Williams is likely to face a relatively uncontroversial confirmation. With a background in commercial and patent litigation, and a paucity of controversial statements, Williams should expect a confirmation within the next three months.

77 Comments

  2. Williams is a good nominee. The only knock I could say is it would have been nice if they found a nominee a decade or so younger but still all in all a good nominee. After the leaked Roe reversal from SCOTUS last, I’m sure millions of people will be taking about the courts today. Let’s hope this lights a fire under Schumer to start the confirmations back up if all 50 Dems are back in town.

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  3. Would Williams he be the first African-American to serve on Delaware District Court? He’d make history for that alone. Otherwise, he’s a traditional nominee. He seems to be very well-qualified and well-regarded in the state’s legal community.

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  4. I still wonder when for the nominees from the following states with 2 Democratic Senators will come. I know some vacancies are more recent than others. Some of them we have seen Senator’s recommendations. Others we have not. Oregon and Massachusetts are the most inexcusable:

    -California Central (2 vacancies)
    -California Eastern (1 vacancy)
    -California Northern (3 vacancies)
    -California Southern (3 vacancies)
    -Colorado (1 vacancy)
    -Connecticut (1 vacancy)
    -Maryland (1 vacancy)
    -Massachusetts (3 vacancies)
    -Michigan Eastern (3 vacancies)
    -Minnesota (1 vacancy)
    -New Jersey (1 vacancy)
    -New Mexico (1 vacancy)
    -New York Eastern (2 vacancies)
    -New York Northern (1 vacancy)
    -New York Southern (1 vacancy)
    -Oregon (1 vacancy)
    -Virginia Eastern (1 vacancy)
    -Virginia Western (1 vacancy)
    -Washington Eastern (1 vacancy)
    -Washington Western (2 vacancies).

    *vacancies without pending nominees

    Liked by 1 person

    • The Massachusetts first 2 of 3 vacancies are the most inexcusable. They have both been vacant for over a year. That’s followed by the Oregon vacancy. I will cut the vacancies in all the other states some slack because they have moved some nominees through but my patience is running thin for the remaining California seats in particular. Especially with al of the outstanding nominees that they have not tapped into yet due to all but one current nominee being a sitting judge.

      It upsets me to see senators Cornyn & Cruz extending their dates for accepting district court nominees until June as well as senator Johnson withdrawing his blue slip. But as long as we have this massive list of blue state seats without a nominees I really could care less as to what’s going on in red states when it comes to district court seats.

      I don’t want to see Elizabeth Warren talk about packing any court until she can give me nominees from her home state.

      Liked by 2 people

  5. Hearing next week..

    Maybe the senate can confirm a judge – or two this month

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    • Good to see a hearing next week. It would be even better if we could sneak 6 nominees in it. And it’s absolutely mind blowing it’s been two days since the leak & not so much as a hint of a cloture vote or discharge motion, let alone a confirmation. I guess next week we can expect 5 new nominees. At this rate we might not be able to fill every circuit court & district court blue state seat before 2025 even if the Democrats hold the senate…smh

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    • And a vote to discharge DALE HO, who’s from the Senate Majority Leader’s state, recommended by HIM!

      The bi-weekly 5 nominee thing is awful. Not just because there are a lot of vacancies to nominate for, but because it signals to SJC and Durbin that they need not consider more than 5 nominees in hearings every other week or so. Leadership starts at the top.

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  6. Did anybody else notice the SJC website for last weeks nominations hearing didn’t include the questionnaire for the nominees like they always do? Does anybody know where we can get them as I’m sure they are public record? I like reading the nominations process at the end for each nominee in addition to anything else that may be surprising about then.

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    • @ Dequan

      Did you see the follow up question for KBJ?….She had over 1,500 written questions to reply to…..In the hearing Sen Tillis said he had 300 questions (which he did), I thought I didn’t hear correctly but yep, he had 300 ?’s alone….Sometimes the SJC takes its time, but usually follow up questions are there in a week or so after hearing..

      @ Gavi

      Schumer has several District court nominees from NY that he hasn’t brought to floor yet, from 2 that need discharge votes to one that cleared SJC (Jennifer Rearden) with a 22-0 vote…

      That absolute best thing senate Democrats can do right now in light of the Roe V Wade news is to confirm judges…Sure, adding seats to SCOTUS would be awesome, but that can’t happen unless we expand Democratic majority in senate….But is it really asking too much to work some Fridays to move the nominees especially given the earthquake at the Supreme Court this week

      Liked by 1 person

      • @Rick

        I’ve never actually read any post hearing questionnaire. I usually only read the initial questionnaire that’s posted on the SJC site when they post who will be in the next hearing.

        That questionnaire was missing from last week’s hearing. I was hoping somebody knows where I can find that on line.

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      • True, but I am not terribly excited about any of the other NY district court noms, and certainly not excited about Reardon (Gillibrand’s rec).
        I guess I was trying to make the point that it would be nice to see the NY senator who controls the floor schedule and who recommended Ho actually set up the votes needed to confirm him. I am a huge Ho fanboy, if it wasn’t obvious.

        @Dequan
        I think the SJC is just tardy with the questionnaires. They are indeed generally posted on the committee’s website as a matter of public record.

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  7. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/05/04/new-york-judge-democrats-redistricting-00030015

    Republicans are good at everything and Democrats are bad at everything. To paraphrase @Dequan, “I’m tired of losing.”

    Even with the current conservative jurisprudence on a state legislature’s supremacy on redistricting (which I disagree with), NY Dems don’t seem like they can successfully use this jurisprudence to defend the maps that the NY legislature approved by supermajority votes. Will this be the only gerrymander (among the egregious Republican ones) that cannot be upheld?
    If the Wisconsin Supreme Court cannot interfere with that state’s redistricting, NY’s highest court should not be allowed to trash the map passed and enacted here. I don’t agree with gerrymander but I don’t believe in unilateral disarmament.
    NY Dems need to formulate a better legal defense and fight this all the way to SCOTUS so that Kavanaugh can be given a chance to either confirm his hypocrisy or confirm his impartial commitment to the nonsense independent state legislature doctrine.

    Liked by 1 person

    • This goes back to what I’ve said in previous post regarding state supreme courts. Democrat governors often times chose older (Newsome) & more moderate (Cuomo) nominees. Even when they chose more liberal nominees such as in New Jersey, the Republican minority will block it & Democrats don’t fight back & push the nominee through.

      Republicans meanwhile put young, conservatives on the state supreme courts. In the case of New York, Cuomo appointed 6 of the 7 justices on the highest court. I believe two of them are out right Republicans. I believe in Colorado there is also a Republican on that court even though all justices were appointed by Democrats. This doesn’t happen in states with Republican governors & state legislators. We are playing Checkers, they are playing Chess.

      Liked by 2 people

      • None stranger than New Jersey’s weird arrangement to always have party balance on that supreme court, no matter how blue the state is or how Democratic the legislature is.
        This New Jersey nonsense would never fly in a 50-50 state like Georgia, where there’ll be a new 30-something year old supreme court justice in July.

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  8. Something is trending on the blogsphere. Sonia Sotomayor has a law clerk named Amit Jain and he is being named as the likely leak of the Roe vs. Wade rough draft. While at Yale, he denounced the university for supporting Brett Kavanaugh and he has some prior relationship with Politico, which broke the story.

    If he’s the leaker, what then? Could he have his law license revoked?

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  9. Some law professors were talking about this on Twitter when it leaked and I think the consensus was that it would be unlikely for someone to be disbarred, but if they weren’t barred yet or in the process of applying, they might have some problems

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  10. This is a right-wing narrative to change the subject from court’s upcoming ruling on abortion rights.

    The leaker could be someone from the conservative side. It’s ironic if not hypocritical that people are complaining that private discussions among the justices were revealed. Who cares?

    For years Congress has been trying to get the Supreme Court to allow cameras to cover oral arguments. They have refused to co-operate. Why? They don’t want to be on television.

    You see the justices like their privacy, How many Americans can name all of the Justices? The privacy they need to have is necessary. But, what about the privacy of women who have relied on Roe and related cases for nearly 50 years?

    No one will be harmed by the “leak.” The real harm will come with court’s eventual ruling.

    Liked by 1 person

    • I think it is likely that the leak was from the right-wing side. The only question in my mind is why, and the answer to that will tell us how bad the decision will be.

      I suspect that Kavanaugh is wavering and considering join Roberts in an opinion that is less extreme than a full overturning of Roe. This is an attempt to pressure him to hold steadfast to Alito’s opinion.
      But it could be what you said, it is being leaked to reduce the backlash by trying to change the subject when it comes out.

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      • To an extent, Alito’s opinion not only overturns Roe but also paves the way for a federal abortion ban. I think Kavanaugh might be wavering on the extreme anti-abortion language in the post, i.e. Kavanaugh wants to limit the holding to Roe and not discuss the constitutionality of a federal ban + other cases such as Griswold v. CT, Lawrence v. Texas, and so on

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      • @Ryan Joshi

        What Alito (and probably Thomas and perhaps Barrett) really wants to write is a ruling that fetuses are “persons” under the 14th Amendment and hence abortion is banned by judicial fiat. The problem for him is that even if such a ruling were adopted the Supreme Court has no enforcement power and you would find that there would be considerable refusal to obey such a ruling to the point that it would basically discredit the Supreme Court.

        Liked by 1 person

  11. Republicans controlled the State Senate in NY until 2018 so they had a say in what judges were confirmed.
    Also, our State Constitution has a gerrymandering provision passed by voters that says NY Democrats can’t do what they did.
    It sucks but I sadly saw the ruling coming, especially given the speed they heard it.

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  12. New opening on MO District Court

    I remember there were couple controversial MO nominees in Obama admin – Stephen Bough and Ronnie White…..Bough had some strong anti right Twitter posts (sorta like Dale Ho) but he was ultimately confirmed…..White was a failed Clinton nominee, but successfully confirmed in 2014 or so

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    • Yup. I think Bough was one of Obama’s more liberal district court judges from a state with at least one GOP senator. I have to admit senator Blunt worked with Obama to get district court judges moved much better then most of the GOP. Him being replaced by a hard right MAGA senator will be a great lost to the senate.

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      • @Gavi

        100%. I was thinking the same thing. Elizabeth Warren went to the steps of the SCOTUS after the Roe leak talking about what to do about the future of the courts… I wanted to scream at the tv. I don’t want to hear a word from her until we have nominees for the THREE district court & one circuit court vacancies in HER STATE.

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      • @Shawn

        Warren & Markey (Two of the most liberal senators in the caucus) shouldn’t be sending ANY nominees that need any hesitation to nominate. They should be sending nominees that you could flip a coin to decide which one you want & you can’t lose either way.

        My guess is either they are dragging their feet, not sending any nominees, or they are repeating recommending nominees similar to the New Jersey senators. Hopefully if it is the latter, this time (Unlike in the case of New Jersey) The White House Counsel’s office is pushing back. I don’t want a repeat of New Jersey. It makes me sick when I think about Biden inheriting six vacancies & three or four of the nominees literally could have been Trump appointees.

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      • @Dequan

        I suspect it is the opposite. Warren/Markey may be sending nominees that the WH is concerned would be rejected by Manchin. Remember that they sent Rachael Rollins for US Attorney and she needed VP Harris to break the tie. Manchin was reportedly irritated that he had to vote for her.

        Liked by 2 people

      • @Dequan

        I think it is the opposite frankly. Warren/Markey are sending nominees that the WH is concerned would be rejected by Manchin, and Warren is uncompromisingly insisting they be nominated regardless.
        Remember that they recommended Rachael Rollins for DA, who required VP Harris to break the tie. Manchin was reportedly irritated that she was nominated and he had to vote for her.

        Liked by 2 people

  13. I suppose that it is maybe that simple, that the DC of Massachusetts is not that busy than the courts in California or New York, neither Woodlock nor O’Toole have ever appeared on the list of the judicial emergencies. Though the average age on this court is pretty high depending on its size.

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  14. Even with this weeks news from SCOTUS, Schumer still filing cloture on WTF type nominations instead of judicial

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  17. Has anyone ever called a senators office and either spoke with with an aide or left a message?.

    I left many tactful messages to numerous senators politely urging confirmation of judicial nominees…..Alot of good it’s done, lol

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  18. It’s the apologism for me.
    I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone (outside the bubble of Capitol Hill) that thinks Congress’s 3-day schedule is somehow superlative. This truncated work week is NOT a feature of the 50/50 senate. This is usually how “hard” they work. From time to time (and more often than not) the Senate is forced to work longer stretches of time. Sometimes they’ve even “canceled” a recess here and there, which is in itself a political messaging tactic. That we think this is normal probably says more about how low we set the bar for them.

    This is 2022. Senators and Representatives do not need to be in their states/districts every week to actually help their constituents. Often, when they actually get around to do something themselves, it’s usually because it offers the politician a good photo op. Otherwise, it’s their staff that are the true workhorses in an effected’s office.

    I encourage everyone to do what Rick does. Call your senators. They’ll only start taking judges seriously when they think enough of their constituents do.

    Liked by 1 person

    • If that’s how you see it that’s fine! They can work 12 hours a day 7 days a week. What will this accomplish? It’s unrealistic and doesn’t make any sense.

      I don’t know where you live but in California, we have 50 million people. Both Senators have offices throughout the state that they have to manage. In addition, they have to raise money for campaigns since the Supreme Court says money is speech.

      The most obvious reason is people want to be at home, Did you stay on your college campus during breaks or did you come home?

      Yes, some of our elected officials are not workhorses. In 2016 my congressman Mike Honda was unseated by Ro Khanna, .

      Kanna is a younger man and is on Facebook every other week having townhalls or telling us what’s happening.in Washington DC.

      Now let me say this- much has been made about work schedules and the like. In the 2000 Election Al Gore did not win his home state of Tennessee. He spent too much time in Washington DC to know that he was out of touch with his own state.

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  19. At this point we are just talking into the void with no results. Two weeks in of senate time and the only judge confirmed is a moderate career prosecutor, and this are the same people crying about roe vs wade potential demise? please! They cant even do the bare minimum of confirming judges and biden still hasn’t nominated anyone to the open kansas seat or the C5 seat. Two weeks wasted just like that. I want people to understand that polls, all pundits, all indicators show democrats losing the U.S senate i was shocked to find out incumbent hassan trailing in New hampshire! a blue state biden won. Yet no urgency, they work 4 days a week and barely.
    Andre mathis was nominated in november, still not confirmed, dale ho and sweeney are still stuck in the judiciary committee. Guys they just don’t care that much, judges is not the top priority for democrats as it is for republicans an no matter how much will yell and shout that will continue. At this pace its almost a guarantee that several vacancies will be left open for mcconnell once he takes control and to leave open until trump or desantis appoints a replacement. This is an active choice schumer has taken him and biden alone deserve all the blame for this negligence, this is past incompetence its direct neglect, and they dont deserve peoples votes . Why should voters make the effort to show up, when these same guys cant work 5 days a week? please. save your energy and peace of mind guys . ive stopped caring gradually.

    Liked by 1 person

    • @aangren

      So sad but true. Of ALL weeks I thought this week we would see some movement on discharge votes or confirmations. I’m addition to Hassan, Warnock is also trailing in his re-election. This would have been the perfect week for Schumer to say no more 4 day work week until they vote to protect a women’s right to choose what to do with her body. But nope, by 4pm Thursday the senate floor is as clean as a baby’s bottom. It’s truly sad

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    • I don’t know why people on here think judges are the end all be all of our existence. Perhaps it because they been following politics for 5 or 10 years. I’ve been following for over 30 years. Here’s my perspective again. The problems we have with the Supreme Court today are not Chuck Schumer, Joe Biden or Dick Durbin’s fault.

      We got a gift and a reprieve in the 2020 Election because Donald Trump gave it away. Yes, Trump was great on judges but that didn’t
      save him. He was un-elected because he couldn’t manage the Coronavirus Pandemic.

      If Biden had not come back into politics, we would be in the middle of Donald Trump’s second term. Biden ran an outstanding campaign and with a victory he was entitled to get several extra Senate seats. However, the “progressive” wing of the party came out with the ridiculous “defund the police” campaign that overshadowed Biden’s momentum.

      As such, we lost seats we should have won in Maine, South Carolina and possibly Montana.

      It’s popular on here to compare Republicans handling of judicial nominations to that of the Democratic Party. I have noticed that the Republicans are voting in each and every election. The party that wins gets to choose judges. But, choosing judges in of itself isn’t going to fix the rulings that the court will render this summer.

      The real solution will come in the 2022 Elections we can get a better working majority and not have to worry about Manchin or Sinema. Let’s work to make those two irrelevant.

      Liked by 1 person

      • When the Republicans look at them as being a big deal, it does lend credence to that question here, although I get what you are saying. While some here definitely overestimate their importance, it is fair to say IMP that Democrats currently don’t care about them as much as they should. I agree with what you said at the bottom if you are in favor of whom Biden has been nominating.

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  20. @Gavi from your earlier post….The eventual replacement of Gregg Costa has been on my watchlist too, because I’m hoping it will be an extremely well-qualified African-American male such as George Hanks (another Obama appointee who replaced Costa on the DC Bench in Galveston after Obama elevated Costa to the 5th Circuit). Hanks like Chief Judge Carl Stewart is well-liked & well-regarded by his colleagues & in the legal community and has bipartisan support because of his undeniable qualifications. Hanks graduated summa cum laude from LSU & went on to Harvard Law School, and Clerked for Judge Sim Lake in the SDTX before joining Fulbright & Jaworski. He has an impressive resume on public service first serving as a State Civil District Court Judge before being elevated to the Texas 1st Court of Appeals where he served honorably for 8 years and was one of the most prolific writers on the court. From there he was selected by a bi-partisan Committee in the SDTX to replace Judge Calvin Botley as a Federal Magistrate. And in 2014, Obama appointed Hanks for a DC seat in the SDTX, and his nomination was supported by both U.S. Texas Senators Cornyn & Cruz, and he was confirmed unanimously by a 90-something to 0 vote in 2015. Hanks received his LLM in Judicial Studies from Duke and has been a longtime member of The American Law Institute. His entire resume is extremely impressive and frankly I think he’s the most well-qualified candidate for the 5th Circuit in Texas and if appointed would be the very 1st African-American from Texas to serve on the 5th Circuit.

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  21. The SJC finally uploaded the questionnaire from last week’s SJC hearing for Childs, Abudu & etc. if anybody was interested to read them. According to Childs questionnaire, she was contacted by The White House on September 29th about the DC circuit seat. I believe judge Tatel announced he will take senior status sometime around late last February. If they are taking over six months just to contact who they want for the second highest court in the land, we have no chance to fill every current circuit court seat before the end of the year. We may still have double digit vacancies by New Years at this rate.

    (https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/meetings/04/20/2022/nominations)

    Like

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