President Joe Biden on Wednesday named a San Diego federal magistrate judge as his newest pick to be a U.S. district judge. The nomination of Benjamin Cheeks comes three months after he was sworn into the magistrate job, following a career that saw him on both sides of the courtroom — prosecutor and defense attorney — and working on both coasts. The White House said Cheeks is “extraordinarily qualified, experienced, and devoted to the rule of law and our Constitution.” Biden has nominated 259 people to the federal bench, including Cheeks. “These choices also continue to fulfill the President’s promise to ensure that the nation’s courts reflect the diversity that is one of our greatest assets as a country — both in terms of personal and professional backgrounds,” the White House said. District judges are nominated by the president and approved by the U.S. Senate for lifetime appointments. Magistrate judges serve eight-year terms that can be renewed. Cheeks was vetted by a local selection panel of both attorneys and non-attorneys before he was sworn in as a magistrate in July. His nomination was applauded by U.S. senators Alex Padilla and Laphonza Butler. “Judge Cheeks has earned immense respect from his colleagues in the Southern District and has fought to protect vulnerable immigrants against fraud,” Padilla said in a statement Wednesday. “I applaud President Biden for his continued commitment to nominating highly qualified, diverse judges to serve California.” The schedule is tight, but this round of judicial confirmations, including Cheeks, could be on the Senate floor by early December, said Carl Tobias, the Williams Chair in Law at the University of Richmond School of Law. “I think the timing is critical, but it’s not too late,” said Tobias, who closely follows judicial nominations. Best case scenario, he said, is that the committee work and hearings start the second week of November, maybe the third week. The Senate is slated for a lame-duck session starting Nov. 12 and running through Dec. 20. Tobias said the Democratic majority — which still rules until time expires — will want to get Biden’s judicial nominees confirmed, and those on this latest slate, he said, are “well-qualified, mainstream nominees” who should not present difficulty to win confirmation. Cheeks graduated with a bachelor’s degree in political science and religious studies from the University of Miami in 2000. He earned his law degree from American University, Washington College of Law in Washington, D.C., in 2003. He started his career as an assistant district attorney in Manhattan. He later moved to the West Coast and worked as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in San Diego. After three years there, Cheeks moved into defense work, where he was a solo practitioner. As a defense attorney, he took a cross-section of criminal cases, including fraud, bribery, money laundering, drug trafficking, firearms offenses and immigration-related offenses. He also handled civil matters, including employment and civil rights cases. Cheeks has served as a lawyer representative for the Southern District of California, the federal court jurisdiction for San Diego and Imperial counties. He was also a member of the district’s Criminal Justice Act Advisory Committee and Standing Committee on Discipline. Cheeks, who is licensed to practice law in New York and California, was also an adjunct law professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law. The district judge position pays $243,300 this year.