The State Bar of California named a Munger team including Friedland a recipient of the 2013 President's Pro Bono Service Award.

[6] On August 1, 2013, President Barack Obama nominated Friedland to a seat on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

[11] Justice Sandra Day O'Connor administered the oath of office to Friedland at her formal investiture on June 13, 2014, in the James R. Browning United States Court of Appeals Building in San Francisco.

[12] On February 4, 2017, Friedland and Judge William Canby rejected[13] the Trump administration's request for an administrative stay[14] of the district court's temporary restraining order in State of Washington v. Trump, part of the ongoing court cases related to Executive Order 13769, pending full review in the Ninth Circuit.

[20] On July 3, 2019, in another high-profile ruling, Friedland and Richard R. Clifton upheld a district court's halting of parts of Donald Trump's wall.

N. Randy Smith issued a dissent, and on July 26, the Supreme Court overturned Friedland and Clifton by a 5–3 vote, with Stephen Breyer saying he would temporarily block the construction of the wall but allow funding to be set aside for it.

[21][22] On August 16, 2021, Friedland (joined by Ronald Gould & Jill Otake) upheld an EPA ruling that the Sacketts' property contained wetlands that were protected by the Clean Water Act.