President Obama has nominated an openly
gay lawyer for ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa. It is the
president's first gay ambassador nomination.
David Huebner currently serves as
general counsel to the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation
(GLAAD), a California-based gay rights group.
Huebner is a partner at Sheppard Mullin
Richter & Hampton LLP, a law firm with offices in California, New
York, Washington D.C. and China. Huebner currently woks out of the
firm's Shanghai office where he specializes in international
arbitration and mediation cases.
Obama also nominated David D. Nelson
ambassador to Uruguay.
“I am confident that these
individuals will represent our nation well in these important roles,”
Obama said in a statement. “I am grateful for their service and
look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead.”
Huebner is a summa cum laude graduate
of Princeton University and earned his law degree from Yale Law
School. Huebner is an adjunct professor at the University of
Southern California's Gould Law School in Los Angeles. He's also
guest lectured at Tsinghua University and East China University of
Politics and Law, both in Beijing, and the University of Southern
California's Marshall School of Business in Los Angeles.
He is a former president of the Los
Angeles Quality and Productivity Commission and has chaired the
California Law Revision Commission.
If confirmed by the Senate, Huebner
would become the third openly gay ambassador in U.S. history, the AP
reported.
Huebner has served as GLAAD's general
counsel for the past 10 years.