Wilhelmina Wright

Wilhelmina Marie Wright (born 1964) is an American jurist and lawyer. She is an inactive senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota . Wright is the first jurist in Minnesota history to have served in all three levels of the state judiciary, as a state district court judge , appellate court judge , and state supreme court justice . She was elected to a six-year term on the Harvard Board of Overseers in 2022.

Contents

• 1 Early life and education

• 2 Career

  • 2.1 Early legal career

  • 2.2 Academic career

  • 2.3 State judicial service

  • 2.4 Federal judicial service

• 3 Awards

• 4 Personal life

• 5 See also

• 6 References

• 7 External links

Early life and education

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Wright was born in 1964, in Norfolk, Virginia . Growing up, her mother had to advocate for her to receive equal education due to ongoing resistance to integration . She went on to study literature at Yale University , receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree and graduating cum laude in 1986. Wright received her Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1989.

Career

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Early legal career

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Wright served as a law clerk for Judge Damon Keith of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit from 1989 to 1991. In 1991, she began working at the law firm of Hogan & Hartson, LLP, in Washington, D.C. , where she took up cases involving U.S. public schools' opportunity, before joining the United States Attorney 's Office in Minnesota in 1995.

In this position, Wright was an Assistant Attorney for the U.S. District Court and the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, where she took up cases involving illegal economic activity and violence. Between 2000 and 2002, Wright was involved with the Minnesota State Bar Association Task Force on the American Bar Association Model Rules of Professional Conduct, the Minnesota Judicial Council, and the Minnesota Courts Public Trust and Confidence Work Group, as a judge for the Ramsey County District Court.

Academic career

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Wright has also taught others about the law. In Geneva, Switzerland, she worked for International Bridges to Justice training on the rule of law, and in Belgium and other areas in Switzerland she taught judicial selection. Closer to home, she was a professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law and taught judicial accountability in other areas of the United States.

State judicial service

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Governor Jesse Ventura appointed Wright to the Ramsey County District Court in 2000, and in 2002 he appointed her to the Minnesota Court of Appeals , on which she served from September 3, 2002, to September 26, 2012. As part of this position, Wright was the Special Redistricting Panel Presiding Judge between June 2011 and August 2012.

Governor Mark Dayton appointed Wright to the Minnesota Supreme Court on August 20, 2012. She was the first African American woman to serve on the Minnesota Supreme Court.

In an August 2012 interview with Minnesota Lawyer Managing Editor Barbara Jones, Wright said she had the opportunity to help the court "reflect the diversity of Minnesota". Her tenure began on September 27, 2012,

and ended in 2016; in 2014, Wright was reelected and served part of a term that was to end in 2020, but then moved to serve federally.

Federal judicial service

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In February 2015, Senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken recommended Wright for the federal bench. On April 15, 2015, President Barack Obama nominated Wright to serve as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Minnesota, saying he was "confident she will serve on the federal bench with distinction". She was appointed to the seat vacated by Judge [Michael J. Davis](

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