President Bush has nominated a Gulfport attorney for a federal judgeship in south Mississippi.

Halil Suleyman Ozerden, if confirmed, would succeed U.S. District Judge David C. Bramlette, who is retiring.

Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., said Thursday that Ozerden “is a brilliant, young legal mind who is a credit to Mississippi and will be an outstanding addition to the federal judiciary.”

Ozerden, 39, whose family emigrated from Turkey, is a member of the Dukes, Dukes, Keating and Faneca law firm in Gulfport. He was born in Hattiesburg.

Lott said that Ozerden had made service to his country and community paramount in his successful life. Ozerden graduated magna cum laude from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service in Washington, D.C., and received his doctor of jurisprudence from Stanford Law School.

At Georgetown, Ozerden was a four-year Navy ROTC scholarship student, and he attended Navy Flight School in Pensacola. Afterward, he served as a commissioned officer in the Navy from 1989-1995.