Judge Traum was first nominated for the judgeship back in 2016 by President Barack Obama during the 114th Congress, but no action was taken at the close of the 114th Congress. President Biden nominated Judge Traum during the first session of the 117th Congress, but the confirmation process was not completed before the first session of the 117th Congress concluded. She was nominated again on Jan. 3, 2022, and the Senate Judiciary Committee reported her nomination to the Senate Floor on Jan. 20, 2022. Upon taking her oath, Judge Traum filled a judgeship vacant since Feb. 1, 2016, when District Judge Robert C. Jones assumed senior status. She maintains chambers in Reno.
Judge Traum was professor of law from 2008 to 2022 and is now emeritus professor of law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, William S. Boyd School of Law. She twice served the law school as Associate Dean for Experiential Legal Education from 2013 to 2015 and 2021 to 2022. At the law school, Judge Traum taught Criminal Procedure, Federal Courts, Criminal Law, and two law clinics: the Appellate Clinic, which she founded in 2009, and the Misdemeanor Clinic, which she co-founded in 2018. She served as Special Counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice, Office for Access to Justice, in Washington, D.C., from 2015 to 2016. Before joining the law faculty at UNLV, Judge Traum served as an Assistant Federal Public Defender for the District of Nevada from 2002 to 2008. She was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Office of the U.S. Attorney for the District of Nevada, Civil Division, from 2000 to 2002, and an attorney for the U.S. DOJ, Environmental and Natural Resources Division, in Washington, D.C., from 1998 to 2000.
Born in Redwood City, California, Judge Traum received her Bachelor of Arts, with honors in history, from Brown University in 1991 and received her Juris Doctor, cum laude, from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law, in 1996.
Judge Traum served as an Appellate Lawyer Representative for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, from 2009 to 2011, and a Lawyer Representative for the District of Nevada from 2013 to 2016. She served on the Ninth Circuit’s Pro Se Litigation Committee beginning in 2015.
Judge Traum was instrumental in establishing the Nevada Appellate Pro Bono Program in 2013 and chaired the Nevada Board of Indigent Defense Services from 2020 to 2021. She was elected Fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers in 2020.