Pierre Nelson Leval (born September 4, 1936) is a senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. At the time of his appointment by President Bill Clinton in 1993, he was a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Education Born in New York City, Leval attended The Allen-Stevenson School, and received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard College in 1959 and his Juris Doctor magna cum laude in 1963 from Harvard Law School, where he served as note editor of the Harvard Law Review. Career Leval served in the United States Army in 1959. He was a law clerk for Judge Henry Friendly of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 1963 until 1964. Leval was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York from 1964 until 1968, serving there as chief appellate attorney from 1967 to 1968. From 1969 until 1975, Leval was in private law practice as an associate and then a partner in the New York firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton. He joined the New York County District Attorney’s Office in 1975, where he served first as first assistant district attorney, and subsequently as chief assistant district attorney. Federal judicial service Leval was nominated by President Jimmy Carter on October 17, 1977, to a seat on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York vacated by Judge Dudley Baldwin Bonsal. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on October 29, 1977, and received commission on October 31, 1977. During his tenure on the Southern District, he presided over the 1985-87 Pizza Connection Trial, a major prosecution against both the American and Sicilian Mafias and the longest criminal trial in the judicial history of the United States. His service terminated on November 8, 1993, due to elevation to the Second Circuit. Leval was nominated by President Bill Clinton on August 6, 1993, to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit vacated by Judge George C. Pratt. He was confirmed by the Senate on October 18, 1993, and received commission on October 20, 1993. He assumed senior status on August 16, 2002. Leval was a board member of the Federal Judicial Center from 2002 to 2006. Other service