Who appointed Pierre Nelson Leval?

President William J. Clinton appointed Pierre Nelson Leval to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1993.

Was Pierre Nelson Leval appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

Pierre Nelson Leval was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was Pierre Nelson Leval's confirmation vote?

Pierre Nelson Leval was confirmed by voice vote on October 18, 1993. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.

Second Circuit / Appointed 1993 / Senior status since 2002

Pierre Nelson Leval

Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

Appointed by President William J. Clinton in 1993 and confirmed by voice vote, Pierre Nelson Leval is a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. He earned a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1963. He previously served on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Opinions & record ↓ Sources ↓

Born: 1936 · age 90
Appointed by: William J. Clinton, 1993
Confirmed: by voice vote
Education: Harvard College 1959 · Harvard Law School 1963
Succeeded: George Cheney Pratt
Succeeded by: Richard C. Wesley

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
1977	Southern District of New York succeeded Dudley Baldwin Bonsal	Carter (D)	Voice vote
1993	Second Circuit succeeded George Cheney Pratt	Clinton (D)	Voice vote

Party letters show the appointing president’s party, not the judge’s own. A voice vote means the chamber approved aloud. No senator-by-senator tally is recorded.

Confirmation vote

Voice vote

The Senate approved this confirmation aloud, with no senator-by-senator tally recorded. Recorded roll-call votes begin in 1989.

Education

Harvard College	A.B.	1959
Harvard Law School	J.D.	1963

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Leval was assigned 980 district-court cases (1980–1996). Median time from filing to termination: 344 days across 979 closed cases.

Contract31%

Prisoner & habeas14%

Personal-injury torts12%

Labor & ERISA10%

Intellectual property7%

Other federal statutes7%

Other20%

Case assignment is from CourtListener’s PACER-derived docket records: a partial sample, not a complete caseload, reflecting the judge last assigned each case. How we count.

In our data, Leval authored 201 published opinions for the court (1978–2010). Most cited: Teachers Insurance & Annuity Ass'n of America v. Tribune Co. (253 citations).

Published, precedential opinions from the CourtListener corpus. Counts and rankings are objective and recomputable: how we count. We describe the record, not the judge.

Selected opinions

Year	Case	Citation	Cited
1987	Teachers Insurance & Annuity Ass'n of America v. Tribune Co.	670 F. Supp. 491	253
1986	United States v. Johns-Manville Corp. (In Re Johns-Manville Corp.)	63 B.R. 600	75
1984	Westmoreland v. CBS INC.	601 F. Supp. 66	57
1988	LTV Steel Co. v. Board of Education of the Cleveland City School District (In Re Chateaugay Corp., Reomar, Inc.)	93 B.R. 26	55
1981	Litton Systems, Inc. v. Frigitemp Corp. (In Re Frigitemp Corp.)	8 B.R. 284	55
1984	Osawa & Co. v. B & H PHOTO	589 F. Supp. 1163	53
1992	Yankee Publishing Inc. v. News America Publishing Inc.	809 F. Supp. 267	51
1985	Robinson v. Johns-Manville Corp. (In Re Johns-Manville Corp.)	52 B.R. 940	49
1987	SEC v. Benson	657 F. Supp. 1122	48
1980	Procter & Gamble Co. v. Johnson & Johnson Inc.	485 F. Supp. 1185	45
1993	Geren v. Quantum Chemical Corp.	832 F. Supp. 728	41
1989	Finnan v. LF Rothschild & Co., Inc.	726 F. Supp. 460	41
1983	Red Star Towing & Transportation Co. v. Ming Giant	552 F. Supp. 367	39
1985	United States v. Badalamenti	614 F. Supp. 194	37
1988	Drexel Burnham Lambert, Inc. v. Valenzuela Bock	696 F. Supp. 957	36

Showing the 15 most-cited of 201 authored opinions in our data. “Cited” is inbound citations across the CourtListener corpus. Case links open the ruling’s full text (CourtListener) or its page here; read the methodology and verify against the primary source.

Questions & answers

Who appointed Pierre Nelson Leval?: President William J. Clinton appointed Pierre Nelson Leval to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 1993.
Was Pierre Nelson Leval appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: Pierre Nelson Leval was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was Pierre Nelson Leval's confirmation vote?: Pierre Nelson Leval was confirmed by voice vote on October 18, 1993. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court is Pierre Nelson Leval on?: Pierre Nelson Leval is a Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Sources

Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

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32 years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).