David Lat reported Monday on Above the Law (link here) that a “leading contender” for the Third Circuit’s open New Jersey seat is Paul Matey, a hospital executive and former deputy chief counsel to Governor Chris Christie. Matey clerked in 2002-03 for Third Circuit Judge Robert Cowen.

Lat doesn’t give Matey’s age, but his Linkedin profile says he started college in 1989, which likely puts him around 46 years old.

Matey was an AUSA in New Jersey from September 2005 to December 2009, overlapping with Lat who left that office in early 2006. (Lat’s article notes Matey’s AUSA service but not the overlap or any relationship between them.) So when Lat reports that Matey is a leading contender and that his Christie connections “do[]n’t seem to have been held against Matey,” I wonder if Lat’s source is Matey himself.

Here is a news report on Matey’s departure from Christie’s staff, and here is his Republican National Lawyers Assoc. member profile (which lists two papers Matey co-authored with “N. Gorsuch”).

Matey is the only Third Circuit contender identified in the article.

Last month I posted that the New Jersey seat and one of the PA seats should be filled by well-qualified moderate Republicans in their 50s. Matey is a Republican but he isn’t in his 50’s. We’ll find out more if he’s nominated.