Who appointed William H. Pauley III?

President William J. Clinton appointed William H. Pauley III to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1998.

Was William H. Pauley III appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?

William H. Pauley III was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.

What was William H. Pauley III's confirmation vote?

William H. Pauley III was confirmed by voice vote on October 21, 1998. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.

Southern District of New York / Appointed 1998 / Served to 2021

William H. Pauley III

Judge, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

Appointed by President William J. Clinton in 1998 and confirmed by voice vote, William H. Pauley III was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. He earned a law degree from Duke University School of Law in 1977. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓

Lived: 1952–2021
Appointed by: William J. Clinton, 1998
Confirmed: by voice vote
Education: Duke 1974 · Duke Law 1977
Succeeded: Peter Keeton Leisure
Succeeded by: John Peter Cronan

Federal judicial service

Year	Court	Appointed by	Vote
1998	Southern District of New York succeeded Peter Keeton Leisure	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

Duke University	A.B.	1974
Duke University School of Law	J.D.	1977

Judicial Record

Caseload & case types

In our data, Pauley was assigned 4,482 district-court cases (1989–2021). Median time from filing to termination: 221 days across 4,480 closed cases.

Contract23%

Civil rights17%

Labor & ERISA12%

Intellectual property10%

Prisoner & habeas9%

Other federal statutes8%

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.

On appeal

Of 183 of Pauley’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 142 were affirmed, 26 reversed or vacated, and 15 affirmed in part and reversed in part. This is a historical count of appellate outcomes for cases we could match, not a judgment of the judge, and not a complete record. How we count.

In our data, Pauley authored 150 published opinions for the court (1998–2011). Most cited: In Re Currency Conversion Fee Antitrust Litigation (86 citations).

A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included. Counts and rankings are objective and recomputable: how we count. We describe the record, not the judge.

Recent & notable rulings

Year	Case	Citation	Cited
2003	In Re Currency Conversion Fee Antitrust Litigation	265 F. Supp. 2d 385	86
2004	Cuoco v. U.S. Bureau of Prisons	328 F. Supp. 2d 463	85
2005	In Re Polaroid ERISA Litigation	362 F. Supp. 2d 461	65
2005	In Re Currency Conversion Fee Antitrust Litigation	361 F. Supp. 2d 237	55
2001	United States Environmental Protection Agency Ex Rel. McKeown v. Port Authority of New York & New Jersey	162 F. Supp. 2d 173	52
2002	Statutory Committee of Unsecured Creditors Ex Rel. Iridium Operating LLC v. Motorola, Inc. (In Re Iridium Operating LLC)	285 B.R. 822	47
2003	Malaco Leaf, AB v. Promotion in Motion, Inc.	287 F. Supp. 2d 355	46
2009	Kennedy v. Trustees of the Testamentary Trust of the Last Will & Testament of Kennedy	633 F. Supp. 2d 77	44
2011	Agence France Presse v. Morel	769 F. Supp. 2d 295	40
2010	Plumbers & Steamfitters Local 773 Pension Fund v. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce	694 F. Supp. 2d 287	40
2000	SHL Imaging, Inc. v. Artisan House, Inc.	117 F. Supp. 2d 301	40
2000	RB Ex Rel. LB v. BOARD OF EDUC. OF CITY	99 F. Supp. 2d 411	37
2000	Reynolds v. Giuliani	118 F. Supp. 2d 352	35
2011	Picard Ex Rel. Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, LLC v. Estate of Madoff	464 B.R. 578	34
2010	Local No. 38 International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Pension Fund v. American Express Co.	724 F. Supp. 2d 447	34

Showing the 15 most-cited of 150 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 William H. Pauley III?: President William J. Clinton appointed William H. Pauley III to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York in 1998.
Was William H. Pauley III appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?: William H. Pauley III was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
What was William H. Pauley III's confirmation vote?: William H. Pauley III was confirmed by voice vote on October 21, 1998. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
Which court was William H. Pauley III on?: William H. Pauley III was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Sources

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

How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources

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22 years on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).