President Bush yesterday nominated a veteran Pittsburgh trial attorney and experienced mediator to fill a vacant seat on the bench in the Western District of Pennsylvania. Nora Barry Fischer, 55, a partner at the Downtown law firm of Pietragallo Bosick & Gordon, has been chosen to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of former U.S. District Judge Robert J. Cindrich, who left the bench in 2004 to become chief counsel at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. The nomination will now proceed to the Senate judiciary committee. Before confirmation hearings are held, Mrs. Fischer, of Shadyside, will have to go through an FBI background check and complete a committee questionnaire. Bill Pietragallo, the founding partner of her firm, said he's known Mrs. Fischer for 30 years.