U.S. Chief District Judge Sven Erik Holmes is leaving the federal bench to join Big Four firm KPMG LLP in the newly created position of vice chair of legal affairs.
Judge Holmes, 53, chief judge for the Northern District of Oklahoma, will resign in March from the federal bench in Tulsa, where he has served for ten years. He will serve as KPMG's chief legal officer and will direct the office of general counsel and the ethics and compliance functions within the firm. His appointment is expected to be formally ratified by KPMG's partnership later this month.
In his new post, Holmes will be counsel to the office of the chairman, the management committee and the board of directors of KPMG LLP, and will become a member of the firm's management committee. He will maintain offices in Washington and New York.
Judge Holmes, who currently teaches constitutional law at the University of Tulsa College of Law, was appointed to the federal bench in 1995 and has been a chief judge since 2003. Prior to his appointment to the bench, he was a partner in the Washington law firm Williams & Connolly. He previously served as general counsel and staff director for the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and served as a member of the staff on the Senate Select Committee on Secret Military Assistance to Iran and the Nicaraguan Opposition. He also served as vice president for the Baltimore Orioles baseball team.
