President Obama nominated Abid Riaz Qureshi to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, potentially making the Washington lawyer the first Muslim-American federal judge.

Mr. Qureshi is a partner at Latham & Watkins L.L.P. in Washington, where he is the global chairman of its pro bono committee and specializes in the False Claims Act, health care fraud and securities violations. He received his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1997 and a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University in 1993.

“I am confident he will serve the American people with integrity and a steadfast commitment to justice,” Mr. Obama said in a statement.

Image Abid Riaz Qureshi is President Obama’s nominee to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. Credit... Latham & Watkins L.L.P., via Associated Press

The issue of diversity in the judicial landscape received renewed attention this year after Donald J. Trump, the Republican nominee, said in May that Gonzalo P. Curiel, the presiding judge in a lawsuit filed by former Trump University students, would be biased against him because of the judge’s Mexican-American background. Mr. Trump later said that he did not think that a Muslim judge would be fair to him, either.