The state Senate Tuesday voted unanimously to confirm Honolulu attorney James H. Ashford to a six-year term as a district judge on Oahu. 

Ashford, a partner in the  Honolulu law firm of Cades Schutte, succeeds Dean Ochiai as judge in the First District.

A seven-member Senate panel on Monday also had recommended unanimously that Ashford be confirmed after a two-day confirmation hearing that focused on questions raised about a procedural matter from 2007 and his pro bono work as a member of the Hawaii State Bar Association.

Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald nominated Ashford from a list of candidates from the Judicial Selection Commission. Ashford focused on commercial litigation, employment law, construction and condominium disputes, and other types of civil cases.