Julia Smith Gibbons

Julia Smith Gibbons (born December 23, 1950 in Pulaski, Tennessee) is a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

Background

Gibbons received a B.A. from Vanderbilt University and a J.D. from University of Virginia School of Law. After graduation, she served as a law clerk to Sixth Circuit Judge William Ernest Miller. She was in private practice from 1976-1979 before joining Governor Lamar Alexander's staff as a legal advisor in 1979. In 1981, she left the Governor's staff to become a state trial judge in Tennessee.

Gibbons was first appointed to the federal bench by President Ronald Reagan on June 7, 1983. She served as a judge on the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee until her appointment by President George W. Bush to the Sixth Circuit.

Sixth Circuit nomination and confirmation

Gibbons was nominated to the Sixth Circuit by Bush on October 9, 2001 to fill a seat vacated by Judge Gilbert Stroud Merritt, Jr., who assumed had Senior status. She was confirmed [http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=107&session=2&vote=00194 95-0] by the United States Senate on July 29, 2002. Gibbons was the first judge nominated to the Sixth Circuit by Bush and confirmed by the Senate.

Personal

Her husband, Bill Gibbons, is the District Attorney General of Shelby County, Tennessee, the county that contains Memphis, Tennessee. A portrait of Judge Gibbons's husband appears in the Tom Cruise film, The Firm, as a dead partner of the fictional law firm.

External links

* [http://air.fjc.gov/servlet/tGetInfo?jid=845 Federal Judicial Center Profile]
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