Chief Judge Puts Middle District Court Filings Online

Reflecting on what drew him to a legal career, Vanaskie, one of seven children, quipped: “Probably some TV show.” But after further consideration, he said he drew inspiration from his father, a bricklayer who went off to serve in World War II before finishing high school.

“My dad, who never finished high school, said if he had done anything, [law school is] what he would have liked to do,” Vanaskie said.

Still, Vanaskie was the only one of his four brothers and two sisters to pursue law school after graduating with a degree in political science from Lycoming College in 1975.

While in college, the Shamokin native met Commonwealth Court Judge Genevieve Blatt as a participant in a state government internship through the James A. Finnegan Foundation. Blatt, a co-founder of the foundation, later invited Vanaskie as a student at the Dickinson School of Law to participate in a summer internship in her chambers.

Upon graduation from Dickinson, Vanaskie clerked for Judge William J. Nealon, who still serves the Middle District Court as a senior jurist. It was Vanaskie’s clerkship with Nealon and his earlier internship with Blatt that started him on the road to the judiciary.

After concluding his two-year clerkship in 1980, Vanaskie went to work for Gov. Robert Casey, who at the time headed the Scranton office of the Philadelphia firm Dilworth Paxson Kalish & Kauffman. He specialized primarily in commercial litigation, making partner in 1986. In 1992, he left Dilworth to form the firm of Elliott Vanaskie & Riley, which had offices in Blue Bell, Scranton and Washington D.C.

Then, in 1993, the one-time clerk had his shot at the big leagues when two vacancies opened up on the Middle District Court.

Nomination Process

“I thought it was something I would be very interested in doing,” Vanaskie, a Democrat, recalled when he first considered serving on the federal bench. “It was one of these things you never really thought you would get an opportunity to do, and when the opportunity came up, I jumped at it.”

In 1993, Judge Richard P. Conaboy took senior status. Two years earlier, a new judgeship had been created by statute — leaving two openings on the Middle District bench.

“We had a Democratic president — politics is a very important part of the process — and we also had at that time a Democratic senator, Harris Wofford,” Vanaskie said. Wofford “had established a merit selection panel to make recommendations. — Their job is to screen candidates for the judgeships that are open. It’s a very lengthy application process that you complete. I decided to throw my hat in the ring when I learned that an attorney by the name of Jim Haggerty, who was then general counsel to the governor, was not going to throw his hat in, because he would have been the logical person for it; he’s a very well experienced lawyer, very well respected.”

So Vanaskie and about 60 other lawyers put their names in the pot. The merit selection panel reviewed the applications and then began interviewing the candidates in panels of three. Only 12 candidates survived this process. They then went before the whole panel, who whittled the pool down to six names. Wofford then selected two to submit to the White House. Vanaskie and a Luzerne County Common Pleas judge made the final cut.

Vanaskie said the process began in March 1993, and by June, he was scheduled to undergo a grueling interview in the Justice Department.

“That was probably the most intense and challenging interview I participated in,” Vanaskie said. “It lasted about two hours, and you had both political appointees and career Justice Department officials interviewing you.”

Vanaskie’s name was then submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee. His fellow nominee, Luzerne County Judge Patrick J. Toole Jr., was not recommended.

Following a confirmation hearing in January 1994, Vanaskie was confirmed in February and took the bench on March 1, 1994.

Role of a Judge