Pamela Ann Harris (born September 23, 1962) 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 Fourth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (in case citations, 4th Cir.) is a federal court located in Richmond, Virginia, with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts: * District of Maryland ...

. Prior to joining the federal bench, she was an associate professor at the

University of Pennsylvania Law School The University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School (also known as Penn Law or Penn Carey Law) is the law school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is among the most selective and oldes ...

, and visiting professor at the

Georgetown University Law Center The Georgetown University Law Center (Georgetown Law) is the law school of Georgetown University, a private research university in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1870 and is the largest law school in the United States by enrollment and ...

and executive director of its Supreme Court Institute.

Early life and education

Harris graduated from Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda,

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. She received 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, summa cum laude, in 1985 from

Yale College Yale College is the undergraduate college of Yale University. Founded in 1701, it is the original school of the university. Although other Yale schools were founded as early as 1810, all of Yale was officially known as Yale College until 1887, ...

. She received a Juris Doctor in 1990 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 ...

. She served as a law clerk to Judge Harry T. Edwards of the

United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (in case citations, D.C. Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. It has the smallest geographical jurisdiction of any of the U.S. federal appellate co ...

, from 1990 to 1991. She worked as an associate at the law firm of Shea & Gardner (now Goodwin Procter LLP) in

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

from 1991 to 1992. She served as a law clerk to Justice John Paul Stevens of the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

, from 1992 to 1993.

Career

Harris served as an attorney-advisor in the

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United Stat ...

Office of Legal Counsel The Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) is an office in the United States Department of Justice that assists the Attorney General's position as legal adviser to the President and all executive branch agencies. It drafts legal opinions of the Attorney ...

, from 1993 to 1996. From 1996 to 1999, she was an associate professor at the

, earning the Harvey Levin Memorial Teaching Award. She previously served as the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General of the Office of Legal Policy at the

. She joined O'Melveny & Myers LLP as counsel in 1999, where she specialized in appellate and Supreme Court litigation, becoming partner in 2005. Beginning in 2007, concurrently with her private practice, she co-directed Harvard Law School's Supreme Court and Appellate Practice Clinic and was a visiting professor at

. In 2009, she was named the Executive Director of the Supreme Court Institute at Georgetown, serving in that position until 2010, when she joined the

Office of Legal Policy The Office of Legal Policy (OLP) is a division within the United States Department of Justice which describes itself as the "focal point for the development and coordination of Departmental policy." In addition to rendering legal advice to the Un ...

. She returned to Georgetown in 2012 and served in that capacity until her appointment as a federal judge in 2014.

Federal judicial service

On May 8, 2014, President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the ...

nominated Harris to serve as a United States Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, to the seat vacated by Judge

Andre M. Davis Andre Maurice Davis (born February 11, 1949) is the former city solicitor for Baltimore and a former United States federal judge, United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. He was formerly a United ...

, who assumed

senior status Senior status is a form of semi- retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of service as a federal judge must be at leas ...

on February 28, 2014. She received a hearing on her nomination on Tuesday, June 24, 2014. On July 17, 2014, her nomination was reported out of committee by a 10–8 vote. On July 22, 2014, U.S. Senate Majority Leader

Harry Reid Harry Mason Reid Jr. (; December 2, 1939 – December 28, 2021) was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States senator from Nevada from 1987 to 2017. He led the Senate Democratic Caucus from 2005 to 2017 and was the Sena ...

filed for cloture on Harris's nomination. On July 24, 2014, 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 ...

invoked

cloture Cloture (, also ), closure or, informally, a guillotine, is a motion or process in parliamentary procedure aimed at bringing debate to a quick end. The cloture procedure originated in the French National Assembly, from which the name is taken. ' ...

on her nomination by a 54–41 vote. On July 28, 2014, her nomination was confirmed by a 50–43 vote. She received her judicial commission the next day.

Personal life

Harris is married to Austin Schlick, a lawyer with

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and former

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdicti ...

general counsel.

References

External links