The Judiciary Division is pleased to present Pathways to the Bench, a podcast hosted by Mimi Tsankov* FBA Judiciary Division Board Member, interviewing FBA members of the Judiciary on their path to the bench.
*Mimi Tsankov is President of the National Association of Immigration Judges. The views expressed here represent the author’s personal opinions or those of NAIJ and do not represent the official views of the Department of Justice or the Executive Office for Immigration Review.
Please select the member names below to access podcast episodes.
April 2025
Commander Jeffery C. Barnum is the Chief Judge for the Eastern Judicial Circuit of the United States Coast Guard. In that capacity, he presides over felony-level courts-martial and supervises other military judges in their judicial duties. Before ascending to the bench in his current role, Commander Barnum has been a part time Military Judge since 2019.
Commander Barnum earned his J.D. from the University of Washington School of Law, graduating with high honors in June 2012. Most recently, Commander Barnum graduated from the U.S. Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School in June 2017, earning an L.L.M. in Military Law with a specialty in Criminal Law.
After law school, Commander Barnum was assigned to the Legal Service Command’s Military Justice Division where he prosecuted violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. He also served as a staff attorney for the Coast Guard’s Fifth District, providing legal advice to Coast Guard commanders from New Jersey to North Carolina. He also served as the principal legal advisor to the Coast Guard’s Training Center in Yorktown, VA, supporting 800 staff and 8000 students per year.
Prior to attending law school, Commander Barnum drove Coast Guard small boats and ships on both the West and East Coasts of the United States as well as the Great Lakes.
Commander Barnum’s individual military awards include the Meritorious Service Medal (2), Coast Guard Commendation Medal, Coast Guard Achievement Medal (4) with the Operational Distinguishing Device, the Coast Guard Commandant’s Letter of Commendation Ribbon (3) with the Operational Distinguishing Device, and the Military Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal. He has earned the permanent Legal Program, Cutterman, and Coxswain insignia.
February 2025
Judge Veronica S. Rossman was born in the former Soviet Union. In the mid-1970s, she immigrated with her parents to the United States from Moscow as political and religious refugees. The family settled in the San Francisco Bay Area, where Judge Rossman grew up.
Judge Rossman received her BA in Comparative Literature (Spanish and Russian) from Columbia University. She received her JD from UC Law San Francisco (formerly UC Hastings), where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the Hastings Constitutional Law Quarterly.
Judge Rossman was a law clerk on the Nevada Supreme Court to Justice William Maupin (retired). She also served as a staff attorney for the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Early in her career, Judge Rossman worked for several years as a litigation associate with Morrison & Foerster LLP; she was based in the firm’s Washington D.C. and Denver offices. At the firm, Judge Rossman specialized in appellate practice and antitrust work. She also spent several years as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law, teaching appellate writing and federal civil procedure.
Judge Rossman spent the majority of her legal career as an Assistant Federal Public Defender for the Districts of Colorado and Wyoming, where she was an appellate lawyer and served as Chief of the Appellate Section. Judge Rossman briefed and argued many cases to the Tenth Circuit, never realizing she would one day sit on that court.
In May 2021, President Biden nominated Judge Rossman for an opening on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. She was confirmed to that position by the United States Senate in September 2021. The Tenth Circuit is based in Denver, Colorado and reviews cases from Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming. Judge Rossman maintains her residential chambers in Denver, Colorado at the historic Byron White United States Courthouse.
Judge Rossman is a board member of the Federal Judges Association. She is also the Chair of the Colorado Judicial Coordinating Council and the Chair of the Federal Bar Association Judiciary Division’s Article III Appellate Judges Committee. Judge Rossman serves on the Tenth Circuit’s Criminal Pattern Jury Instruction Committee.
July 2024
Magistrate Judge Ajmel A. Quereshi, the son of two Pakistani-American immigrants, received a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, English, and History from Marquette University, cum laude. He received his Juris Doctorate, magna cum laude, from the University of Minnesota Law School. After graduation from law school, he clerked for the Honorable Damon J. Keith of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and the Honorable James G. Carr of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio. In between his clerkships, he served as a Skadden Fellow at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Maryland. His time at the ACLU of Maryland was recognized by the Maryland Daily Record, which named him a member of its inaugural “Maryland VIP List” which recognizes Maryland business and legal leaders.
Shortly thereafter, he accepted a position as Visiting Assistant Professor and Director of the Civil Rights Clinic at Howard University School of Law. While at Howard, he also taught courses in Torts and Federal Civil Rights and Appellate Litigation. Although he left full-time employment at Howard in 2013, he continued to direct the Civil Rights Clinic for a significant part of the last decade. In 2016, his commitment to teaching and mentorship was recognized by Harvard Law School, which awarded him a Wasserstein Fellowship – a recognition for lawyers who have committed to mentoring junior lawyers committed to public service. Additionally, Boston College Law School awarded him a Rappaport Fellowship, which recognizes lawyers who have developed an expertise in the intersection of law and public policy. After leaving Howard, Mr. Quereshi served as staff counsel at the ACLU’s National Prison Project. In 2015, Mr. Quereshi joined the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, where he served as Senior Counsel until joining the Court.
Mr. Quereshi has lectured at several law schools around the country and his work has been recognized by various groups, including most recently Marquette University’s Alumni Association, which awarded him and his wife, Jill Rauh Quereshi, the Spirit of Marquette Award.
April 2024
Judge Elizabeth L. Gunn has served as a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the District of Columbia since 2020. Prior to taking the bench, Judge Gunn practiced in law firms representing constituents of all types in bankruptcy cases and from 2015-2020 served as an Assistant Attorney General for the Commonwealth of Virginia as the bankruptcy specialist for the Division of Child Support Enforcement. She is a graduate cum laude of Willamette University in Salem, Oregon and Boston College Law School.
February 2024
Hon. Mina Nami Khorrami was appointed on September 10, 2021 by the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to serve as bankruptcy judge for the Southern District of Ohio. Judge Nami Khorrami began her career in St. Louis, Missouri, where she practiced bankruptcy law and litigation as an associate with the firms of Vogler & Associates and then with Compton, Wells & Hamburg. While she practiced in St. Louis, Judge Nami Khorrami successfully argued a case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit.
In 1991 Judge Nami Khorrami relocated to Columbus, Ohio to open her own firm. Her practice focused on more complex Chapter 7 and 13 bankruptcies, including arguing before the Bankruptcy Appellate Panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. She also handled general civil litigation, foreclosure defense, and issues relevant to small businesses. Prior to her appointment to the bench, Judge Nami Khorrami also served as a chapter 7 panel trustee.
Judge Nami Khorrami has served on numerous committees of the Columbus bankruptcy bar and was a frequent speaker at CLE programs. She has long been committed to bankruptcy pro bono service in the Columbus community, and in 2013 she received a Columbus Bar Association and Foundation Award for her involvement in the implementation of the chapter 7 bankruptcy pro bono project in Columbus. Judge Nami Khorrami also served as vice-chair of the Court’s Attorney Advisory Committee and co-chair of its Consumer/Small Business subcommittee. Judge Nami Khorrami is a past co-chair of the Columbus chapter of the International Women’s Insolvency & Restructuring Confederation (IWIRC) and a past co-chair of the Bankruptcy Law Institute (BLI) Planning Committee. Judge Nami Khorrami also served on the board of trustees for the Credit Education Coalition (CEC), and was a member of the Chapter 13 Liaison Committee.
Judge Nami Khorrami earned her B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Missouri-St. Louis and her J.D. from Valparaiso University School of Law.
February 2024
Hon. Alan S. Trust ascended to the bench on April 2, 2008, and sits in the Eastern District of New York. He became Chief Bankruptcy Judge on October 1, 2020.
In December 2023, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. appointed Judge Trust to a two-year term as the Bankruptcy Judge Observer to the Judicial Conference of the United States.
Judge Trust has been selected by the Federal Judicial Center on several occasions to serve as a faculty member for national bankruptcy judge workshops, and has spoken on issues such as evidence and the power of the bankruptcy courts to regulate its proceedings through sanctions and contempt. Judge Trust has been an adjunct professor of law at the St. John’s University School of Law since 2009.
Judge Trust has been previously designated by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals to mediate cases in the Southern District of New York and to sit in the District of Connecticut bankruptcy court. Judge Trust has continued to serve as a judge mediator. He also served for five years on the Judiciary Data Working Group under the auspices of the Administrative Offices of the United States Courts.
Judge Trust is the recipient of the 2022 New York Institute of Credit Conrad B. Duberstein Memorial Award for Excellence and Compassion in the Bankruptcy Judiciary, and the 2022 Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Advisors’ Judicial Service Award.
Judge Trust served a two year term as President of the Eastern District of New York Chapter of the Federal Bar Association and serves as CLE Committee co-chair. He is a past Chair of the Bankruptcy Law Section of the Federal Bar Association, a member of the Board of Directors of that Section, and has served as the CLE Committee chair. He is also a past member of the Editorial Board of the American Bankruptcy Institute Journal, a coordinating editor for the Journal, and for over ten years had responsibility for the Dicta column. He is also a member of the National Conference of Bankruptcy Judges and has served as the NCBJ liaison to the FBA.
Judge Trust remains a frequent speaker and contributor for numerous CLE events and seminars, addressing bankruptcy, mediation, trial practice and ethics issues, and has participated in a number of civics programs. He was instrumental in the creation of the Pro Bono Mediation Program and the formation of the Consumer Lawyer Advisory Committee adopted by the EDNY Bankruptcy Court.
Judge Trust attended Syracuse University, graduating summa cum laude in 1981, and as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He attended New York University School of Law, where he served on the Law Review and graduated cum laude in 1984. After graduation, he relocated to Dallas, Texas to begin his law practice. Judge Trust opened his own law firm (Trust.Law.Firm, P.C.) in December 1995 and managed that firm until appointed to the bench.
February 2024
Hon. Alison S. Bachus has served FBA in a variety of capacities, including on the National Board of Directors. She has served on the National Constitution, Bylaws, Rules and Resolution Committee; Government Relations Committee; Budget and Finance Committee; Community Service and Outreach Committee; Membership Committee; Nominations and Elections Committee; Chapter Activity Awards Committee; and the Special Committee on Women in the Law. She currently sits on the FBA’s Judiciary Division Board. In FY2018, she chaired the Nominations and Elections Task Force, which examined the Association’s elections procedures. She then served on the National Governance Task Force in FY2019. From 2012 to 2017, she served as Vice President for the Ninth Circuit. Judge Bachus was Chair of the CVPs for FY2017. Prior to her election as a CVP, she served as president of the Phoenix Chapter, where she was a member of the board from 2007 to 2020. At the section level, she has been a member of the Federal Litigation Section and has served on its board. She has spoken at various national FBA conferences, including Leadership Summit and the Women in the Law Conference. She was honored with the President’s Award in 2022. Judge Bachus is proud to be a Life Fellow of the FBA Foundation.
Judge Bachus currently serves as a United States Magistrate Judge in Phoenix, Arizona. She previously served on the Arizona state bench from 2015 to 2023. Prior to her appointment to the Arizona state bench, Judge Bachus served as an assistant U.S. attorney for many years and as in-house counsel for the Federal Bureau of Prisons in Arizona. She received various awards during her career as a federal litigator, including Cooperative Law Enforcement and Victims’ Rights awards. Before joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office, she served as a law clerk for then-Chief U.S. District Judge Stephen M. McNamee. Judge Bachus currently serves on the board of the Law College Association of the University of Arizona’s Rogers College of Law, and she was a faculty member of Arizona’s Bar Leadership Institute, working on bench/bar relations between the federal and state bars, for many years. She is a member of the Arizona Women Lawyers Association, the Federal Magistrate Judges Association, and the National Association of Women Judges. Prior to joining the bench, she served as a lawyer-representative for the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference and on the Arizona State Bar’s Committee on Minorities and Women in the Law. Outside of legal organizations, Judge Bachus has volunteered with the Girl Scouts of Arizona and St. Mary’s Food Bank.
Hon. Donna Phillips Currault is a Magistrate Judge with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana and has served in various Federal Bar Association positions including as Chair of the Labor and Employment Section.
Hon. Suzanne Mitchell has served as a U.S. Magistrate Judge in the Western District of Oklahoma since February 1, 2013. She chairs the district’s Criminal Justice Act Panel Selection Committee. She also serves the Court-Assisted Recovery Effort Program, a trauma-informed federal reentry court that focuses on intensive treatment to help recently released nonviolent offenders reintegrate into society. In May 2020, Chief Justice John G. Roberts appointed her to serve as the Magistrate Judge on the International Judicial Relations Committee of the U.S. Judicial Conference. She also chaired the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts’ Magistrate Judge Advisory Group from 2018-23, and serves on the Human Resources Advisory Council.
Judge Mitchell served as President of the Oklahoma City Chapter of the Federal Bar Association for 2017-18, served as the FBA’s Vice President for the Tenth Circuit from 2018-21. She received the FBA’s Outstanding Chapter Leadership Award for her service and is an active student mentor for the FBA in Oklahoma City. She currently serves on the FBA’s Judiciary Division.
She has been named a Master of the William J. Holloway American Inn of Court and served as the Inn’s President for 2018 19. She serves on the Federal Magistrate Judge’s Associations’ International Committee and she has served as an Oklahoma County Bar Association Board member and on Rotary Club 29’s Board of Directors.
Her professional experience includes serving as an appellate practitioner at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Oklahoma, as Senior Law Clerk for former U.S. Tenth Circuit Judge Robert H. Henry, and as a corporate and securities attorney at McAfee & Taft’s Oklahoma City office.
A graduate of Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, she also studied at the London School of Economics. She earned her law degree with high honors from George Washington University, where she was awarded Order of the Coif and served as an editor on the George Washington Law Review and a member of the Moot Court Board.
Judge Mitchell is President-Elect of the Rotary Club of Oklahoma City (2023-24), the third largest Rotary Club in the world. She has previously served as an officer, board member, and various committee chairs. She is also a member of Leadership Oklahoma City Class XIV, former chair of the Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition, and former board member of various nonprofits.
She lives in Oklahoma City with her husband Sam Fulkerson, managing partner of Ogletree Deakins’s Oklahoma City office. They have four children.
Judge Joanna Seybert
United States District Court Judge for the Eastern District of New York
Born 1946 in Brooklyn, NY
Federal Judicial Service:
Judge, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York
I was initially nominated by President George Herbert Walker Bush in 1992. Upon my nomination expiring I was nominated by President William Jefferson Clinton on September 24, 1993, to a new seat authorized by 104 Stat. 5089. Confirmed by the Senate on November 20, 1993, and received commission on November 24, 1993.
Education:
University of Cincinnati, B.A., 1967
St. John`s University School of Law, J.D., 1971
Professional Career:
Trial attorney, Legal Aid Society, New York City, 1971-1973
Senior trial attorney, Federal Defender Services, Legal Aid Society, Brooklyn, 1973-1975
Private practice, Woodbury, New York, 1976
Senior staff attorney, Legal Aid Society of Nassau County, 1976-1979
Private practice, Woodbury, New York, 1979
Bureau chief, Major Litigation Bureau, Nassau County Attorney’s Office, 1980-1987
Judge, Nassau County District Court, New York, 1987-1991
Judge, Nassau County Court, New York, 1992-1993
The Hon. Delissa A. Ridgway was sworn in as a Judge of the U.S. Court of International Trade in May 1998. The Court of International Trade – based in New York – is a nine-member Article III federal trial court with exclusive nationwide jurisdiction over disputes involving the interpretation and application of U.S. customs and international trade laws.
Prior to her appointment to the Court, Judge Ridgway served as Chair of the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission of the U.S., a three-member international tribunal charged with adjudicating claims by U.S. nationals against foreign sovereigns, including, e.g., claims against Germany brought by U.S. survivors of Nazi concentration camps. Before her 1994 appointment to the FCSC by President Clinton, Judge Ridgway was a member of the International Practice Group at Shaw Pittman (now Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman) in Washington, D.C., where she specialized in international arbitration. She has been an Adjunct Professor of Law on the international law faculty of Cornell Law School and has served as a rule of law/“capacity-building” consultant to numerous U.S. government agencies, foreign governments, international organizations, and NGOs, advising/teaching judges and lawyers around the world on the rule of law and legal/judicial reform, as well as a wide range of topics in international law.
A longtime member of the American Law Institute, Judge Ridgway is a past Chair (2009-2010) of the National Conference of Federal Trial Judges (representing the interests of all federal trial judges in the U.S.) and has a long history of leadership in the U.S. judiciary and in bar and community activities. She is a Charter Fellow of the Federal Bar Foundation and served for two decades on the National Council of the Federal Bar Association (“FBA”), in addition to service as Chair of the FBA’s Government Relations Committee and service on the Editorial Board of The Federal Lawyer and in the leadership of several FBA Sections. The Judge also served several terms on the Board of the Federal Bar Building Corporation (“FBBC”).
Beyond her roles in the FBA leadership, Judge Ridgway is also very active in the American Bar Association, where she is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and has served on, inter alia, the Council of the ABA’s Judicial Division, the ABA Standing Committee on Federal Judicial Improvements, the ABA Commission on Women, and the Asia/Pacific Council and the Middle East/North Africa Council of the ABA’s Rule of Law Initiative (“ROLI”). In addition, she has served for nearly a decade on the Council of the ABA International Law Section and currently serves as a member of the ABA’s delegation to the United Nations. She also serves on the New York City Bar Association’s Council on International Affairs and is a founding member of the City Bar’s Task Force on the Independence of Lawyers and Judges. Earlier in her career, Judge Ridgway served for seven years on the Board of Governors of the 100,000-member D.C. Bar and as President (1992-1993) of the Women’s Bar Association of D.C.
Judge Ridgway was the 2000 recipient of the Earl W. Kintner Award, the national FBA’s highest honor; and, in 1997, the FBA recognized her as one of four “Distinguished Women in International Law” (an honor that she shared with, inter alia, then-First Lady Hillary Clinton and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright). She was also recognized as Washington, D.C.’s “Woman Lawyer of the Year” (2001) and as the University of Missouri’s “Distinguished Scholar in Residence” (2003). The Judge’s many other honors include the ABA International Law Section’s World Order Under Law Award (2019) and its Mayre Rasmussen Award for the Advancement of Women in International Law (2020), as well as the D.C. Bar’s Frederick B. Abramson Award (1996). She received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the New York City Bar’s Third Annual International Law Conference on the Status of Women in 2022.
Judge Ridgway is a 1975 honors graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia, where she completed coursework for an M.S. in Community/International Development. She received her law degree from Northeastern University School of Law in 1979 and was a member of the inaugural (2014) class of the LL.M. in Judicial Studies program at Duke University School of Law.
Judge Gustavo A. Gelpí was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in October 2021. He received his undergraduate degree from Brandeis University in 1987 and his law degree from Suffolk University Law School in 1991. From 1991 to 1993, Judge Gelpí served as law clerk to U.S. District Judge Juan M. Pérez-Giménez. From 1993 to 1996, he served as an Assistant Federal Public Defender. From 1997 to 2000, Judge Gelpí worked as an Assistant Attorney General, served as Solicitor General of Puerto Rico, and worked in private practice. Judge Gelpí was appointed as a Magistrate Judge in the District of Puerto Rico in 2001. In 2006, President George W. Bush appointed him to the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico, where he served as Chief Judge from 2018 to 2021. Judge Gelpi served as President of the Federal Bar Association from 2013 to 2014.
Hon. Michael J. Newman is a United States District Judge in the Southern District of Ohio’s Dayton seat of court. After being recommended by the Bipartisan Judicial Selection Commission created by Senators Portman and Brown, he was nominated by President Trump in March 2020, confirmed by the U.S. Senate in October 2020, and sworn in on November 12, 2020. Judge Newman previously served in the Dayton seat of court as a United States Magistrate Judge, a position to which he was appointed in 2011, and reappointed in 2019 to a second eight-year term.
Judge Newman graduated with honors from the Washington College of Law at American University, and attended the Advanced Mediation Program at Harvard Law School. He was a law clerk on the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (to Judge Nathaniel R. Jones) and the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio (to Magistrate Judge Jack Sherman, Jr.). Prior to taking the bench, he was a partner at Dinsmore & Shohl in Cincinnati, where he chaired the firm’s Labor & Employment Appellate Practice Group. He practiced in the areas of labor and employment, business litigation, ERISA litigation, and appellate litigation, and represented a wide range of clients – from individuals to Fortune 500 companies. He was also extensively involved in pro bono work, and created and led Dinsmore’s pro bono appellate program in the Sixth Circuit. While in private practice, he was named a Leading Lawyer, an Ohio Super Lawyer, and one of the Best Lawyers in America in Labor & Employment Law.
Judge Newman is a Master in Dayton’s Carl D. Kessler Inn of Court and Cincinnati’s Potter Stewart Inn of Court, and was named a Fellow by the Ohio State Bar Foundation, the American Bar Foundation, the Dayton Bar Association Foundation, and the Federal Bar Association Foundation (Life Fellow). He has taught as an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Dayton School of Law, the University of Cincinnati College of Law, and the Chase College of Law at Northern Kentucky University.
Judge Newman’s professional memberships include the Dayton Bar Association (Chair, Federal Practice Committee), the Ohio State Bar Association (Chair, Federal Courts and Practices Committee), and the Federal Bar Association (President of the Cincinnati and Dayton chapters; Judiciary Division Chair; and National President). He was the first Magistrate Judge in the United States to be appointed National President of the FBA. His Civics and Service to Others initiative as National President resulted in thousands of young people from all across the country meeting with federal judges to learn about civics and the Third Branch of government. This civics work continues; Judge Newman was named the FBA’s first Judicial Ambassador for Civics Education, and he has been invited to speak on the topic of civics education by the Federal Judicial Center. He now co-chairs the Sixth Circuit’s Civics and Outreach Committee, and chairs the Southern District of Ohio’s Civics Committee.
While FBA president, Judge Newman created two national committees: the Access to Justice Task Force and the Special Committee on Diversity. His commitment to diversity and inclusion, and access to justice, is longstanding. He serves on the statewide board of directors of the Law & Leadership Institute, which encourages Ohio high school students from underserved communities to attend college and law school, and he helped lead the effort to start the Greater Dayton Area Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Legal Roundtable. Locally, he serves on the board of the Greater Dayton Volunteer Lawyers Project and also presides over the first Federal Veteran’s Treatment Court in the Southern District of Ohio, which he started. To date, more than 75 veterans have graduated from this treatment court after receiving assistance with PTSD and opioid addiction.
Judge Newman has been recognized by the Federal Magistrate Judges Association for “valuable and dedicated service to all Magistrate Judges,” and was honored to receive the Boots Fisher National Public Service Award given annually to one lawyer in the United States for “exemplary community, public and charitable service.” He also received the Federal Bar Association’s President’s Award for “leadership [as well as] extraordinary service, and guidance.” In 2019, he was recognized by Washington University Law School in St. Louis for his “service on the bench, to the legal profession, and to society.” In 2020, he was honored to receive the Ohio State Bar Foundation’s highest award, the Ritter Award, “for a lifetime of service…in attaining and promoting the highest standards of professionalism, integrity and ethics in the practice of law while assisting other attorneys, the courts and the public to envision and cause changes which improve the justice system in Ohio.”
Judge Newman and his wife, Rachel, are the proud parents of triplet daughters who attend public school in the Dayton area.
Judge Beth Bloom has served as a United States District Judge in the Southern District of Florida since 2014. She was appointed by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the United States Senate (95-0) on June 24, 2014 (her birthday). Before her appointment to the federal bench, she served on the Florida state court bench in Miami-Dade County for nearly 20 years. She was appointed by former Governor Charlie Crist to the Circuit Court in 2010 after serving 15 years as a County Court Judge. She has served in the Circuit Court’s criminal and civil divisions and all divisions of the County Court, serving as the Associate Administrative Judge.
Judge Bloom received her Bachelor of Science degree in public relations from the University of Florida in 1984 and her Juris Doctor degree (cum laude) from the University of Miami School of Law. She practiced commercial litigation with the law firm of Floyd Pearson Richman Greer Weil Zack & Brumbaugh from 1988-1994 and served as a Traffic Court Magistrate from 1993-1994 before her election to the state court bench.
Judge Bloom currently serves as a member of the Judiciary Division Board of the Federal Bar Association and is a Board Member of the South Florida Chapter of the Federal Bar Association. In 2015, she established and coordinates the Southern District of Florida’s annual Summer Intern Ethics and Orientation Program and oversees its annual Law Day and Constitution Day Programs. She is the co-creator of the Civil Discourse & Difficult Decisions Program, now a national initiative, presented to high school students in the federal court.
Judge Bloom is a frequent lecturer for the Florida Bar, other bar associations and FBA chapters. She has presented at the 2018 New Judges College and the 2017 District Judges Conference. She served on the faculty of the Florida Judicial College for 19 years, teaching newly elected and appointed judges. She has served on the faculty of the National Judicial College, the College of Advanced Judicial Studies, the Florida Conference of County Court Judges and an adjunct faculty member of the Litigation Skills Program at the University of Miami School of Law. She is a frequent lecturer with the Florida Bar and several local bar associations.
While serving as a state court judge, Judge Bloom was elected as the first woman president of the Florida Conference of County Court Judges, a member of the Executive Committee of the Florida Conference of Circuit Court Judges and was a founding member of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Historical Society. She coordinated the University of Miami School of Law’s Judicial Internship Program for 17 years. In Miami- Dade County, she created the “Lawyers Join Hands for Students” Program, the DUI In-Jail Treatment Program, the Smoking Tobacco Offender Program (S.T.O.P.), the “It’s Your Life” Skills Program for foster youth aging out of the foster care system, and the “I’m Ready” Program for youthful offenders sentenced in adult criminal court. She coordinated the Artist in Residence Program with artist Romero Britto and students from Miami-Dade’s Visual and Performing Arts Academies and implemented the Eleventh Circuit’s Centennial Celebration’s county-wide poster, essay and speech contests with the Miami-Dade County schools. She led the effort to establish “Friends of Caleb,” and spearheaded the creation and construction of a now-permanent mural commemorating Joseph Caleb. She is the co-founder of the Children’s Craniofacial Association at Miami Children’s Hospital and Oliver’s Fund at the University of Miami’s Debbie School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing.
Judge Bloom has received numerous honors and awards that include the ABA Presidential Recognition Award, the Florida Bar President’s Award of Merit, the Florida Conference of County Court Judges’ Trailblazer Award and Harvey Ford Leadership Award, the Fraternal Order of Police Citizen of the Year Award, the Dade County Bar Association’s Johnnie M. Ridgely President’s Award, the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Historical Society’s “Silverman Award”, the University of Miami School of Law Alumni Association’s Thomas Davison III Service Award, the Miami-Dade Justice Association’s “Judge Steve Levine Award”, MADD’s Judicial Distinction Award, the Legal Services of Greater Miami’s 2015 Equal Justice Judicial Leadership Award, the Juvenile Judges’ Child’s Heart Award, the Miami Bridge Youth & Family Service’s Champion for Children Award, Our Kids’ Leadership Award, Mellon Bank’s Community Service Award, the Jewish Legal Society’s Rodef Shalom Pursuer of Peace Award, Judge of the Year from the Minority Chamber of Commerce, Miami Todays’ 2019 Stars in Government Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award from Miami Women Who Rock.
September 2020
Magistrate Judge Karoline Mehalchick, United States District Court, Middle District of Pennsylvania
Hon. Karoline Mehalchick is a U.S. Magistrate Judge in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania. She was appointed to the bench on July 15, 2013. She is a graduate of the Schreyer Honors College of the Pennsylvania State University and Tulane University School of Law. Prior to joining the court, Judge Mehalchick clerked for the Court of Common Pleas of Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania and was a partner with a small law firm in Northeast Pennsylvania, where she represented a broad range of clients in both state and federal trial and appellate courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. Judge Mehalchick has been active in the FBA for over 10 years, and is a past president of the Middle District of Pennsylvania Chapter, previously serving as its secretary, vice president, and president-elect, and a former Third Circuit Vice President. She currently serves as a Director on the Board of the FBA, is a judicial profiles editor for The Federal Lawyer, and serves as Secretary to the Judiciary Division. She also serves as her local chapter’s ECF coordinator and civics liaison, and works closely with the chapter’s community outreach chair to implement programs with local schools and the court.