- Judge Jennifer Sung was confirmed by the Senate on December 15th, 2021. She was previously a labor attorney who served on the Oregon Employment Relations Board from 2017 to 2021, where she adjudicated labor relations disputes and union representation matters.
- From 2007 to 2016, Judge Sung’s private practice focused on labor relations, arbitration and agency proceedings, contract negotiations, policy development, and professional licensing matters.
- In 2013, Judge Sung represented SEIU Arizona in a case challenging the constitutionality of two state laws that curbed union power. The court issued an injunction to prevent the implementation of one law, and found that some sections of the second law were unconstitutional.
- In 2015, Judge Sung represented the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals in a case where a hospital violated nurses’ contracts by unilaterally scheduling them to work on their days off. Judge Sung helped secure an agreement that included an order requiring the employer to avoid scheduling nurses to work on their regular days off in most cases.
- In 2015, Judge Sung represented professors at Portland State University in a case before the Oregon Employment Relations Board. The Board found that the university interfered with the professors’ protected union rights.
- Judge Sung was an organizer with the Service Employees International Union Local 74 from 1996 to 1998, and with the Service Employees International Union Local 1199 from 1998 to 2001.
- Upon confirmation, Judge Sung became the first AAPI judge from Oregon on the Ninth Circuit, only the third AAPI woman to ever serve on a U.S. Court of Appeals, and brought the most experience working at a labor union of any sitting judge on the Ninth Circuit.
- Upon confirmation, Judge Sung became the first circuit judge with a background in union-side labor law in over a decade.
- Judge Sung received her J.D. from Yale Law School in 2004, where she was co-chair of the Workers’ Rights Projects. She clerked for Ninth Circuit judge Betty Binns Fletcher from 2004 to 2005.
- From 2005 to 2007, Judge Sung completed a Skadden Fellowship at the Brennan Center for Justice, where she worked on economic justice policy.
Confirmed