Eric Lee Clay (born January 18, 1948) is a

United States circuit judge In the United States, federal judges are judges who serve on courts established under Article Three of the U.S. Constitution. They include the chief justice and the associate justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, the circuit judges of the U.S. ...

of the

United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (in case citations, 6th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts: * Eastern District of Kentucky * Western District of ...

Early life, education and legal training

Born in

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

, Clay earned a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

degree

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...

from the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...

in 1969 and a Juris Doctor in 1972 from

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by '' U.S. News & Worl ...

, where he was a classmate of future president

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

and

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

. Clay clerked for United States District Judge

Damon Keith Damon Jerome Keith (July 4, 1922 – April 28, 2019) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and a former United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern Distr ...

from June 1972 until June 1973.

Professional career

Clay worked as a lawyer in private practice in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

from 1973 until 1997. He was a partner and co-founder of Lewis, White & Clay, which was considered to be one of the nation's leading black-owned law firms. In addition, he also served on the executive board of the Clinton-Gore finance committee for Michigan in 1992. David Baker Lewis, Clay's law partner, was the husband of Kathleen McCree Lewis, a Clinton nominee to the Sixth Circuit who was never confirmed.

Federal judicial service

On March 6, 1996, President

nominated Clay to a seat on the

vacated by Judge Ralph B. Guy, Jr. The

United States Senate Judiciary Committee The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, informally the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of 22 U.S. senators whose role is to oversee the Department of Justice (DOJ), consider executive and judicial nominations, ...

approved Clay's nomination in 1996, but the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

adjourned in 1996 prior to the presidential election without taking a full confirmation vote. Clinton renominated Clay on January 7, 1997. Clay was unanimously confirmed by the full Senate in a voice vote on July 31, 1997, and received his commission on August 1, 1997.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Clay, Eric Lee 1948 births African-American judges Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Living people People from Durham, North Carolina United States court of appeals judges appointed by Bill Clinton University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni Yale Law School alumni 20th-century American judges 21st-century American judges

Early life, education and legal training

Professional career

Federal judicial service

See also

References

External links