[6] Nathan also wrote in a tribute to Justice John Paul Stevens that "When I review work from my law clerks, I will often leave a supportive note like the ones he left me and my co-clerks: 'Nice job.

[5][2] As an Adjunct Professor of Clinical Law at NYU, her academic focus was on "civil procedure, federal courts, habeas, and the constitutionality of the U.S. death penalty system".

[18] In 2020 and 2021, Nathan presided over the bail hearings and trial for Ghislaine Maxwell, who was indicted on federal charges of conspiring and participating with Jeffrey Epstein in the sexual abuse of minors.

[23] In 2020, Nathan issued an unusual decision strongly criticizing the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan, and its leadership, for their handling of the high-profile case of Ali Sadr Hasheminejad.

Sadr, a businessman, had been convicted of evading U.S. sanctions against Iran, but the charges were dismissed after prosecutors admitted that the government had failed to make required Brady disclosures of evidence to the defendant and had made misrepresentations to the court.

Nathan wrote, "The manifold problems that have arisen throughout this prosecution — and that may well have gone undetected in countless others — cry out for a coordinated, systemic response from the highest levels of leadership within the United States attorney's office for the Southern District of New York.

"[24] In 2021, Nathan presided over a bench trial regarding the ownership of the Guennol Stargazer, a rare idol dating between 4800 and 4100 BCE that likely originated in what is now Turkey's Manisa Province.

The Turkish government sued the auction house Christie's and the idol's owner, Michael Steinhardt, alleging that the planned sale of the ancient marble artifact violated a 1906 Ottoman decree.

Nathan rejected Turkey's claim, finding that there was insufficient evidence to show the artifact, which had been exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum of Art for decades, had been excavated after 1906.

[25][26] In 2021, Senator Chuck Schumer recommended Nathan to President Joe Biden for a vacancy on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Biden nominated Nathan to the seat being vacated by Judge Rosemary S. Pooler, who announced her intent to assume senior status upon confirmation of her successor.

[30] During her confirmation hearing, Republican senators criticized her decision to grant some prison inmates early release during the COVID-19 pandemic and her prior writings (as a law professor and attorney in private practice) in opposition to the death penalty.