Draft:Rebecca L. Pennell

Rebecca Louise Pennell (born 1971) is an American lawyer who has served as a judge of the Washington Court of Appeals since 2016. She is a nominee to serve as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington.

Early life
Pennell grew up in Richland, Washington, where her father worked at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and her mother was a math teacher at Columbia Basin College.

Education
Pennell earned a Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, from the University of Washington in 1993 and a Juris Doctor from Stanford Law School in 1996.

Career
From 1997 to 1999, she served as a law clerk for Judge Robert H. Whaley of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington. From 1999 to 2000, she was a Skadden Fellow at TeamChild, an organization that provides legal services to youths in Yakima, Washington. From 2000 to 2016, she was a public defender with the Federal Defenders of Eastern Washington and Idaho. In January 2016, Washington Governor Jay Inslee appointed her as a judge of the Washington Court of Appeals to fill the vacancy left by the retirement of acting chief judge Stephen Brown. She had a formal investiture ceremony on February 19, 2016.

Nomination to federal district court
On March 20, 2024, President Joe Biden announced his intent to nominate Pennell to serve as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Washington. On March 21, 2024, her nomination was sent to the Senate. President Biden nominated Pennell to the seat vacated by Judge Salvador Mendoza Jr., who was elevated to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on September 16, 2022. On April 17, 2024, a hearing on her nomination was held before the Senate Judiciary Committee. On May 9, 2024, her nomination was favorably reported out of the Senate Judiciary Committee by an 11–10 party-line vote. Her nomination is pending before the United States Senate.

Personal life
Pennell lives in Yakima with her husband and daughter.