Halil Suleyman Ozerden

Halil Suleyman "Sul" Ozerden (born December 5, 1966) is a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi and a former nominee to be a Circuit Judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. Biography Ozerden was born in Hattiesburg, Mississippi to a Turkish family. He obtained his undergraduate education at Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., receiving a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service. Sul was also a four-year Navy ROTC scholarship student, serving as battalion executive officer (1989). Upon receiving his commission as a naval officer, he completed United States Navy Flight School in Pensacola, Florida, from 1989 to 1990, and was designated a naval flight officer. Ozerden also obtained his Juris Doctor in 1998 from Stanford Law School, and served as associate editor for the Stanford Law Review. Professional career Ozerden served as a commissioned officer in the United States Navy from 1989 to 1995. His military service included: naval flight officer/bombardier-navigator, A-6E Intruder; over 1,000 flight hours; mission commander qualified; two six-month Western Pacific deployments aboard the USS Kitty Hawk; head of Safety Department; Navy Commendation Medal for missions flown in Operation Restore Hope (Somalia) and Operation Southern Watch (Iraq); and the Navy Achievement Medal. He was honorably discharged with the rank of lieutenant (O-3). Ozerden began his legal career as a law clerk for United States District Judge Eldon E. Fallon of the Eastern District of Louisiana from 1998 to 1999 and also served as a private practice attorney licensed in Mississippi from 1999 to 2007.