Born in Philadelphia, Nathan earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1994 from Cornell University and then earned a Juris Doctormagna cum laude from Cornell Law School in 2000. At Cornell, she was a member of the Quill and Dagger society and editor-in-chief of the Cornell Law Review. After law school, Judge Nathan clerked for the Ninth Circuit with Judge Betty Binns Fletcher, eventually, clerking for Justice John Paul Stevens. After her federal service ended at SCOTUS, Judge Nathan moved to private practice with Wilmer Cutler & Pickering in 2002. In a New York Times Obituary of Judge Deborah Batts, Judge Nathan remembered Judge Batts as an inspiration. Judge Nathan also wrote in a tribute to Justice John Paul Stevens that, ″When I review work from my law clerks, I will often leave a supportive note like the ones he left me and my co-clerks: “Nice job. Just a few fly specks.”″
Professional career
From 2000 until 2001, Nathan served as a law clerk for U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Judge Betty Binns Fletcher. From 2001 until 2002, Nathan served as a law clerk for Associate Justice John Paul Stevens on the U.S. Supreme Court. From 2002 until 2006, Nathan served as an associate in the New York and Washington, D.C. offices of the law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr. During the 2004 campaign season, she acted as John Kerry's ″Associate National Counsel″ for the Kerry-Edwards Democrat Campaign for President. From 2006 until 2008, Nathan served as a visiting associate professor of law at Fordham University School of Law. Judge Nathan also served as the Fritz Alexander fellow, New York University School of Law, from 2008 until 2009., Her academic focus is on ″ civil procedure and death penalty jurisprudence″. From 2009 until 2010, for about 18 months, Nathan served as a special assistant to President Barack Obama and also as Associate White House Counsel. Since 2010 until her appointment as a United States District Judge, Nathan worked in the office of the Attorney General of New York as a special counsel to the state's Solicitor General. In 2016, Judge Nathan was a guest judge for the Harvard Law SchoolAmes Moot Court Competition.
Federal judicial service
Before Judge Nathan's appointment to the federal bench in 2008, she served as associate White House Counsel for the Obama Administration, before assisting the state attorney general’s office and New York Solicitor General Barbara Underwood. On March 31, 2011, President Obama nominated Nathan to a seat on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to replace Judge Sidney H. Stein, who took senior status in 2010. The United States Senate confirmed Nathan in a 48–44 vote on October 13, 2011. She received her judicial commission on October 17, 2011. Judge Nathan is recorded as the second openly gay jurist on the federal bench, after Judge Deborah A. Batts. Since her appointment, in 2013, Judge Nathan was reported to be an advocate for changes to the clerkship system under what has been known as the ″Law Clerk Hiring Plan.″
Notable cases
In 2014, Nathan banned Aereo from streaming live TV to devices. In 2016, Judge Nathan officiated the wedding of Judge J. Paul Oetken on September 6, 2014 at Jane Hotel in Manhattan. In April of 2020, Judge Nathan came out against prisoner practices that put early released inmates into special COVID19 quarantines which defied inmates' court approved early release, and the law, saying the policies were ″“illogical” and “Kafkaesque.”″. In July of 2020, Judge Nathan presided over the bail hearing for Ghislaine Maxwell in a case related to the late convicted felon Jeffrey Epstein.
Personal life
Judge Nathan was raised in northwest suburban Philadelphia. Her parents both were graduates of university, and instilled the same academic life in Judge Nathan. While at university herself, Judge Nathan studied philosophy and Japanese. After her graduation from Cornell, Judge Nathan taught English in Japan and Thailand, as well as working for a short time at a newspaper. Nathan and her wife, New York University School of Law Associate Professor of Clinical Law, Margaret Satterthwaite, are parents to twin sons.
