Brisco, Lund nominated to IN Northern District Court

IL file photo

Two northern Indiana trial court judges have been nominated to fill vacancies on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana.

St. Joseph Superior Judge Cristal C. Brisco and Elkhart Superior Judge Gretchen S. Lund were nominated to the federal bench in a Wednesday announcement from the White House.

If confirmed, Brisco and Lund would fill the vacancies created by Judges Theresa Springmann and Jon DeGuilio taking senior status on Jan. 23, 2021, and July 17, 2023, respectively.

Brisco currently presides in St. Joseph Superior Court 4, where she also serves as a Commercial Court judge. She was appointed to the bench in 2021 after having served as a magistrate judge in St. Joseph Circuit Court since 2018.

Before that, she was general counsel to Saint Mary’s College; corporation counsel for the city of South Bend; and in private practice with Barnes & Thornburg LLP.

Brisco is a 2002 graduate of Valparaiso University and a 2006 graduate of Notre Dame Law School.

Lund was elected in 2014 and took the bench in Elkhart Superior Court 4 in 2015. Before that, she had served as judge of the Goshen City Court since 2008.

Her career also includes stints as a deputy prosecutor in Elkhart County; a law clerk for then-Magistrate Judge William T. Lawrence of the Indiana Southern District Court; and in private practice at Ice Miller LLP.

Lund is a 1998 graduate of Butler University and a 2001 graduate of Valparaiso University School of Law.

Brisco and Lund aren’t the only pending nominees to fill an Indiana federal court vacancy.

Joshua Kolar, currently a magistrate judge on the Northern District Court, is awaiting a final Senate vote on his nomination to the 7^th Circuit Court of Appels, where he would replace the late Judge Michael Kanne.

And in the Southern District, Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson announced this year her intent to take senior status in 2024. A nominee for that future vacancy has not been announced.

There is one other vacancy currently pending in the 7^th Circuit, according to the U.S. Courts.

That’s in the Eastern District of Wisconsin, where Judge William C. Griesbach took senior status on Dec. 31, 2019.

A nominee to succeed Griesbach has not been announced.

According to the federal courts, there are currently 64 vacancies among the country’s 890 judgeships, with 29 nominees pending and four nominees pending for future vacancies.

Wednesday’s nominations marked the 42^nd round of judicial nominations for the Biden administration, according to the White House. That brings the administration’s total number of nominees to 203.