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N E W S R E L E A S E June 29, 2007 Contact: David J. Madden, (415) 355-8930 Benjamin H. Settle Confirmed as U.S. District Judge for Western District of Washington SAN FRANCISCO – The United States Senate confirmed President Bush’s nomination of attorney Benjamin H. Settle of Shelton, Wash., to serve as a judge on the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington. He will have chambers in Tacoma. Mr. Settle was confirmed on Thursday, June 28, a vote of 99-0 with one senator not voting. He is expected to receive his commission shortly and will fill a judgeship vacant since March 9, 2005, when District Judge Franklin D. Burgess assumed senior status. President Bush nominated Mr. Settle for the judgeship on Jan. 9 after a previous nomination lapsed at the end of the last Congress. He had his hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on April 25, when his nomination was reported favorably to the full Senate. Born in Olympia, Wash., Mr. Settle received his B.A. in 1969 from Claremont McKenna College and his J.D. in 1972 from Willamette University College of Law. He served in the Army as a captain in the Judge General Advocate Corps from 1973 to 1976. After leaving the service in 1977, he helped found the law firm of Settle & Johnson in the Shelton, a small town west of Olympia. The firm practices municipal, real estate and corporate law, estate planning and probate. The U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington is among the nation’s busiest federal courts with 3,753 new cases filed in 2006. The court, which hears cases in Seattle, Tacoma and Bellingham, is authorized seven judgeships and currently has one vacancy. # # #