Suzanne Mitchell (born 1968) is a

United States magistrate judge In United States federal courts, magistrate judges are judges appointed to assist U.S. district court judges in the performance of their duties. Magistrate judges generally oversee first appearances of criminal defendants, set bail, and conduct ...

for the Western District of Oklahoma and is a former nominee to be a

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district. Each district covers one U.S. state or a portion of a state. There is at least one feder ...

of the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma.

Biography

Mitchell received a

Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service The Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS) is the school of international relations at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. It grants degrees at both Undergraduate education, undergraduate and Postgraduate education, graduate lev ...

degree in 1990 from

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...

. She received a

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

, magna cum laude, in 1996 from the

George Washington University Law School The George Washington University Law School (GW Law) is the law school of George Washington University, a Private university, private research university in Washington, D.C. Established in 1865, GW Law is the oldest law school in Washington, D. ...

, graduating Order of the Coif. She served as a

law clerk A law clerk, judicial clerk, or judicial assistant is a person, often a lawyer, who provides direct counsel and assistance to a lawyer or judge by Legal research, researching issues and drafting legal opinions for cases before the court. Judicial ...

to Judge Robert Harlan Henry of the

United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit (in case citations, 10th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts: * District of Colorado * District of Kansas * Dist ...

and later served as a senior law clerk to Judge Henry, from 1999 to 2010. From 1997 to 1999, she was a transactional attorney for an Oklahoma city based law firm. She served as an

Assistant United States Attorney An assistant United States attorney (AUSA) is an official career civil service position in the U.S. Department of Justice composed of lawyers working under the U.S. attorney of each U.S. federal judicial district. They represent the federal gov ...

in the Appellate Division of the United States Attorney's Office for the Western District of Oklahoma, from 2010 to 2013. Since 2013, she has served as a

in the Western District of Oklahoma.

Expired nomination to district court

On December 16, 2015, President

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

nominated Mitchell to serve as a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma, to the seat vacated by Judge David Lynn Russell, who took senior status on July 7, 2013. She received a hearing before the

United States Senate Judiciary Committee The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, informally known as 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 nom ...

on April 20, 2016. On May 19, 2016, her nomination was reported out of committee by

voice vote In parliamentary procedure, a voice vote (from the Latin ''viva voce'', meaning "by live voice") or acclamation is a voting method in deliberative assemblies (such as legislatures) in which a group vote is taken on a topic or motion by respondin ...

. Her nomination expired on January 3, 2017, with the end of the

114th Congress The 114th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States of America federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It met in Washington, D.C., from Ja ...

Personal life

She is married to Samuel R. Fulkerson, a managing shareholder at Ogletree Deakins law firm, and resides in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. They have four children. She is serving as the 2024-2025 President of the Oklahoma City Rotary Club.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitchell, Suzanne 1968 births Living people 21st-century American judges Assistant United States attorneys Georgetown University alumni George Washington University Law School alumni Oklahoma lawyers Lawyers from Oklahoma City People from Bronxville, New York United States magistrate judges 21st-century American women judges