Stephanos Bibas

American federal judge (born 1969)

Stephanos Bibas (born June 18, 1969) is an American lawyer and jurist serving as a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit . He was appointed to the bench in 2017 by President Donald Trump . Before his appointment, he was a professor of law and criminology at the University of Pennsylvania Law School , where he was the director of its Supreme Court clinic .

Bibas is a noted scholar of criminal procedure with expertise in criminal charging , plea bargaining , and sentencing .

As a professor, he examined how procedural rules written for jury trials have unintended consequences when cases involving jury trials are the exception, rather than the rule, with 95 percent of defendants pleading guilty . Bibas also studied the role of substantive goals such as remorse and apology in criminal procedure. Bibas has been praised for the quality of his legal writing.

Early life and education

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Bibas was born on June 18, 1969, in New York City . He spent his summers growing up working in his family's restaurants for his father, a Greek immigrant who had survived the Axis occupation of Greece during World War II . In high school, Bibas became involved in debate and public speaking . He graduated high school at the age of 15 and entered Columbia University .

At Columbia, Bibas was a member of the Philolexian Society and participated in Parliamentary debate . He graduated from Columbia in 1989 at age 19 with a Bachelor of Arts , _summa cum laude _, in political theory . He then studied jurisprudence at University College, Oxford , receiving a Bachelor of Arts in 1991 (later promoted per tradition to a Master of Arts ). While at Oxford, he won the 1st place speaker award in the World Debate Championships . Bibas then attended Yale Law School , where he was a symposium editor of the _Yale Law Journal _ and a member of the moot court team, winning awards for best oralist and best team. He graduated in 1994 with a Juris Doctor .

Professional career

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From 1994 to 1995, Bibas was a law clerk for judge Patrick Higginbotham of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit . He spent two years in private practice as an associate at the law firm Covington & Burling , then was a law clerk to justice Anthony Kennedy of the United States Supreme Court from 1997 to 1998, where he was a co-clerk of future federal judge Raymond Kethledge .

After his Supreme Court clerkship, Bibas worked from 1998 to 2000 as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York . He successfully prosecuted Alastair Duncan, the world's leading expert in Tiffany stained glass , for hiring a grave robber to steal Tiffany windows from cemeteries. Duncan was sentenced to 27 months in Federal prison.

Bibas was a research fellow at Yale Law from 2000 to 2001, then became a professor at the University of Iowa College of Law . In 2006, Bibas moved to the University of Pennsylvania Law School . He received the Robert A. Gorman Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2008.

Bibas is the 15th-most-cited law professor by the United States Supreme Court, United States Courts of Appeals, and state high courts as well as the 5th-most-cited professor of criminal law and procedure by law professors.

Supreme Court clinic

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Bibas also directed Penn Law's Supreme Court clinic , for which he litigated a wide range of appellate cases under consideration by the United States Supreme Court . The clinic allows students to assist on real Supreme Court cases, including recruiting, strategizing, researching, writing briefs, participating in moot court rehearsals, and attending oral arguments at the Court itself. The Court appointed him to brief and argue Tapia v. United States as amicus curiae . The Court praised Bibas and the clinic for doing "an exceptionally good job" on that case.

Cases argued

• _[Turner v. Rogers](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turner_v._Rogers "Turner v. Ro

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