Karen Schreier has been a member of the FJA since shortly after becoming a judge in 1999. She is a fourth generation South Dakotan. Karen received her Juris Doctor Degree from St. Louis University School of Law in 1981. After law school, she served as a law clerk to South Dakota Supreme Court Justice Francis Dunn for one year and was in private practice in Sioux Falls, South Dakota for 11 years with the law firm of Hagen, Wilka, Schreier & Archer. In 1993, she was appointed as U.S. Attorney for the District of South Dakota and served as chair of the Attorney General=s Advisory Committee, chair of the Juvenile Justice Subcommittee and member of the Tribal Relations Subcommittee. On June 30, 1999, Karen was confirmed as a federal district judge in South Dakota. She served as Chief Judge from January 2006 to December 2013. Karen currently serves as a member of the Judicial Conference Budget Committee and previously served as a member and chair of the Administration of the Bankruptcy System committee. She has served as President of the Eighth Circuit District Judges Association, as the Eighth Circuit Representative to the United States Judicial Conference, and on multiple planning committees for Eighth Circuit Judicial Conferences. She enjoys hiking, biking, and reading.

Judge J. Michelle Childs was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in July 2022. She holds her undergraduate degree in Management from the University of South Florida Honors College, a law degree from the University of South Carolina School of Law, a Masters in Personnel and Employment Relations from the University of South Carolina’s Darla Moore School of Business, a Masters of Judicial Studies from Duke University School of Law, and an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Public Service from the University of South Carolina.

From 1992 to 2000, Judge Childs worked at Nexsen Pruet, ultimately serving as partner. From 2000 to 2002, Judge Childs was appointed to serve as the Deputy Director for the South Carolina Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation’s Division of Labor. From 2002 to 2006, Judge Childs received another appointment to serve as a commissioner on the South Carolina Workers’ Compensation Commission. In 2006, the South Carolina General Assembly appointed her as a state circuit court judge. During that time, Judge Childs served as chief administrative judge for the General Sessions, which is South Carolina’s criminal court, and as chief administrative judge for the state’s business court. In 2010, she was appointed to the United States District Court for the District of South Carolina until her appointment to the D.C. Circuit.

Judge Childs is active with various local, state, and national bar organizations, as well as community organizations. She is the President-elect of the Federal Judges Association, the former Chair of the American Bar Association’s Judicial Division, the former Secretary of the American Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Law Section.  She serves as a fellow with the American Bar Association’s Litigation Section and its Committee on the American Judicial System. Judge Childs is also a member of the American Law Institute, having served as an Advisor to the Restatement (Third) of Employment Law. Judge Childs is a fellow with the American Bar Association and also joins the class of 2022 Rodel Judicial Fellows.

 

Judge Leo M. Gordon was appointed to the U.S. Court of International Trade in March 2006. Judge Gordon’s career is one dedicated to public service. He began his career as Assistant Counsel to the Subcommittee on Monopolies and Commercial Law, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. House of Representatives. There, Judge Gordon was the principal attorney responsible for the Customs Courts Act of 1980 that created the U.S. Court of International Trade, while also working on a wide range of antitrust and other commercial law legislative projects.

For 25 years, Judge Gordon was on the staff at the Court, serving first as Assistant Clerk and then Clerk of the Court until his appointment to the bench. Judge Gordon is a member of the Board of Directors of the Federal Judges Association, serves on its Executive Committee, and co-chairs the Association’s Pay & Benefits Committee. He is also a Fellow of the International Customs Law Academy, and a Director of the Academia de Intercambio y Estudios Judiciales (“AIEJ”) (The Academy for the Interchange and Study of Judicial Matters) based in Buenos Aires. Judge Gordon plays a principal role in the development and implementation of AIEJ’s overall training program. He is the co-author, along with Daniel B. Garrie, of “Cybersecurity & the Courthouse–Safeguarding the Judicial Process” published by Wolters Kluwer.

Judge Gordon graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, and received a J.D. degree from Emory University School of Law.

 

Judge Mary Stenson Scriven graduated cum laude from Duke University in 1983 with a B.A. degree in Political Science and, in 1987, with high honors from Florida State University College of Law.

Judge Scriven is a former shareholder with the law firm of Carlton, Fields, Ward, Emmanuel, Smith & Cutler, P.A., where she practiced for ten years in the Corporate Litigation and Trade Regulation Department. Judge Scriven is admitted to practice in the state of Florida, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals and the United States Supreme Court.

Judge Scriven was appointed by President George W. Bush, with bipartisan support of former Senators Bill Nelson and Mel Martinez, to serve as a United States District Judge for the Middle District of Florida on September 30, 2008. She was appointed to serve as Magistrate Judge for the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida in December 19, 1997, and she was reappointed for a second term commencing December 15, 2005. She is the first African-American woman to serve in any capacity on the federal court in the state of Florida and the second to serve on the federal court in the Eleventh Circuit. She was the first African-American woman to sit by designation on the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals on the invitation of the Chief Judge.

From December 1996 through December 1997, Judge Scriven served as an Associate Professor of Law at Stetson University College of Law. Judge Scriven taught in the areas of Commercial Law, teaching Remedies, Legal Malpractice, Banking Law and Contracts. She frequently lectures in trial advocacy, pretrial procedure and in commercial and criminal law courses and seminars. She is a former faculty member with the National Institute for Trial Advocacy Training and has also served as a guest faculty member in a five-day Masters Program for Trial Advocacy, Nottingham Law Institute, Nottingham, England. In May 2006, Judge Scriven received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree, L.L.D., from Stetson University College of Law.

Judge Scriven is also very active in community and professional organizations. She currently serves as Chairperson of the Eleventh Circuit Judicial Council’s Pattern Jury Instruction Committee. She was recently elected by the Florida federal judges of the Eleventh Circuit to serve as the Florida at-large board member to the Federal Judges Association. Before being appointed to the district court, she was elected the first African-American woman President-Elect of the Federal Magistrate Judges Association. She is a past Chairperson of the Board of the Spring of Tampa Bay, the only certified shelter and assistance facility for battered spouses and their children in the Tampa Bay area. She served as Chairperson of the Judicial Education Committee of the Middle District of Florida. She is a Past President of the Hillsborough Association for Women Lawyers. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Hillsborough County Bar Foundation, the charitable arm of the Hillsborough County Bar Association. She has previously served on the Executive Board of Directors of the Hillsborough County Bar Association and the George Edgecomb Bar Association and on the Boards of Directors of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Tampa and the Florida Bar Foundation. Judge Scriven has also been a member of the National Bar Association, the American Bar Association, the Florida Bar and the Florida Association for Women Lawyers. She is a member of the Athena Society. She is a past member of Gamma Theta Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated. She is a member of the Leadership Tampa Class of 1994 and the Leadership Florida Class of 1995. She is a former Trustee for the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center and is a past President of the J. Clifford Cheatwood Inn of Court.

Awaiting Bio

Beth Bloom is a United States District Judge in the Southern District of Florida, appointed by President Barack Obama and unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate on June 24, 2014. She previously served on the Florida State Court bench in Miami-Dade County from 1994 – 2014. She was appointed by former Florida Governor Charlie Crist to the Circuit Court in 2010 after serving 15 years as a County Court Judge. She has served in the Circuit Court’s criminal and civil divisions and all divisions of the County Court, serving as the Associate Administrative Judge.

Judge Bloom received her Bachelor of Science degree in public relations from the University of Florida in 1984 and her Juris Doctor degree (cum laude) from the University of Miami School of Law in 1988. She practiced commercial litigation with the law firm of Floyd Pearson Richman Greer Weil Zack & Brumbaugh from 1988-1994 and was appointed as a Traffic Court Magistrate from 1993-1994 before her election to the State Court bench.

Judge Bloom is Chair of the Federal Bar Association’s Ad Hoc Committee on Judicial Independence, and immediate past Chair of the Judiciary Division, previously serving as Chair of the Article III Trial Judges Committee. She is a member of the Federal Judges Association’s Executive Committee and Chairs the Judicial Independence Committee. She is a Board Member of the Federal Bar Association’s South Florida Chapter, Chair of the Southern District of Florida’s Local Rules Committee, Chair of the Jewish American Heritage Month Committee, and serves on the Southern District’s Ad Hoc Committee on Rules and Procedure.

In 2025, Judge Bloom and colleague Judge Robin Rosenberg created the Courts and Civility Program, that educates the public about the role of the courts and civility, now a national initiative of the Federal Bar Association. This followed their creation and implementation, with guidance from the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, the Civil Discourse and Difficult Decisions Program (CD3) in 2016, presented to high school, college, and law students in courtrooms and remotely in classrooms, a national initiative of the U.S. Courts and the Federal Bar Association.

In 2021, Judge Bloom created the Judicial Intern Academy (JIA), a 20-hour per week summer program, offered remotely and in-person to incoming second year law students, providing internships to students who are personally or financially unable to devote themselves to a full-time, unpaid internship in chambers. The JIA provides robust learning experiences in and out of the courtroom and pairs each intern with a former federal judicial law clerk who serves as a mentor and assists in enhancing the student’s research and writing skills. The JIA is now a national program of the Federal Bar Association.

Judge Bloom serves as a visiting faculty member of Harvard Law School’s Trial Advocacy Workshop and an adjunct faculty member of the University of Miami School of Law’s Litigation Skills Program. She served on the faculty of the Florida Judicial College for 19 years, teaching newly elected and appointed judges; the faculty of the National Judicial College, the College of Advanced Judicial Studies, and the Florida Conference of County Court Judges. She presents nationally on the topics of civility and civil discourse and is a frequent lecturer for the Florida Bar, local bar associations, law schools, and FBA chapters.

Judge Bloom was elected as the first woman president of the Florida Conference of County Court Judges, a member of the Executive Committee of the Florida Conference of Circuit Court Judges and a founding member of the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Historical Society. She coordinated the University of Miami School of Law’s Judicial Internship Program for 17 years. In Miami- Dade County, she created the Lawyers Join Hands for Students Program, the DUI In-Jail Treatment Program, the Smoking Tobacco Offender Program (S.T.O.P.), the It’s Your Life Program for foster youth aging out of the foster care system, and the I’m Ready Program, an alternative to Boot Camp, for youthful offenders sentenced in adult criminal court. She coordinated the Artist in Residence Program with artist Romero Britto and students throughout Miami-Dade’s Visual and Performing Arts Academies, and she implemented the Eleventh Circuit’s Centennial Celebration’s county-wide poster, essay, and speech contests with the Miami-Dade County schools.

Judge Bloom has received numerous honors and awards that include the 2025 Ryskamp Award from the Federal Bar Association, Palm Beach Chapter, the Supreme Court of Florida’s Distinguished Federal Judicial Service Pro Bono Award in 2024, the ABA Presidential Recognition Award, the Miami Beach Bar Association’s 2023 Legal Legend Award, the University of Miami School of Law’s 2023 Henry Latimer Award, the 2020 U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services Recognition Award for her leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Florida Bar President’s Award of Merit, the Florida Conference of County Court Judges’ Trailblazer Award and Harvey Ford Leadership Award, the Fraternal Order of Police Citizen of the Year Award, the Dade County Bar Association’s Johnnie M. Ridgely President’s Award, the Eleventh Judicial Circuit Historical Society’s “Silverman Award”, the University of Miami School of Law Alumni Association’s Thomas Davison III Service Award, the Miami-Dade Justice Association’s “Judge Steve Levine Award”, MADD’s Judicial Distinction Award, the Legal Services of Greater Miami’s 2015 Equal Justice Judicial Leadership Award, the Juvenile Judges’ Child’s Heart Award, the Miami Bridge Youth & Family Service’s Champion for Children Award, Our Kids’ Leadership Award, Mellon Bank’s Community Service Award, the Jewish Legal Society’s Rodef Shalom Pursuer of Peace Award, Judge of the Year from the Minority Chamber of Commerce, Miami Today’s 2019 Stars in Government Award, and the Lifetime Achievement Award from Miami Women Who Rock.

Judge Bloom is married to Lyle Stern, and they have three children.

Chief Judge Nannette Jolivette Brown was nominated to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana by President Barack Obama and after the United States Senate confirmed her nomination by unanimous consent, she began active service on October 5, 2011. She was elevated to Chief Judge on May 25, 2018. Judge Jolivette Brown was the first African American woman appointed to any Louisiana federal district court and the first African American district judge elevated to the position of Chief Judge in the Eastern District of Louisiana in the Court’s 200-year history. Just prior to her appointment to the United States District Court, Judge Jolivette Brown was Deputy Mayor and City Attorney for the City of New Orleans. Prior to that, she was a Partner with the firm of Chaffe McCall, LLP, where she had a varied practice in commercial and environmental litigation, as well as in real estate law and other transactional matters.

Judge Jolivette Brown graduated from Tulane Law School with a Juris Doctor. She later served as a teaching fellow at Tulane Law School’s Environmental Law Clinic while pursuing an LLM in Energy and Environment. She also served as associate professor at Southern University Law Center and clinical professor at Loyola Law School, where she helped establish the Mediation Section of the Loyola College of Law Clinic & Center for Social Justice. She is currently a member of the Executive Committee of the ABA National Conference of Federal Trial Judges, ABA Ethics Committee Judicial Advisory Committee, the Executive Committee of the Federal Judges Association and a Past President of the New Orleans Chapter of the Federal Bar Association. She serves on the FBA Diversity & Inclusion Committee and the Sarah T. Hughes Awards Committee and FBA Foundation. She is also a member of the National Bar Association, Louis A. Martinet Society, Tulane Inn of Court and A.P. Toureau Inn of Court. She was appointed by Chief Justice Roberts of the United States Supreme Court to serve a three year term on the Judicial Conference of the United States Committee on Financial Disclosure.

Of her many honors and awards over the years, Judge Jolivette Brown has been honored with the Sarah T. Hughes Civil Rights Award by the National Federal Bar Association and the Ernest Morial Award by the Louis A. Martinet Legal Society. She has also been honored with the National Bar Association’s Women Lawyers Division Excellence in the Judiciary Award.

Awaiting Bio

Awaiting Bio

Awaiting Bio

Awaiting Bio

Awaiting Bio

Awaiting Bio

Awaiting Bio