The Obama Nominations: Justice Lisabeth Tabor Hughes

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, President Obama nominated Justice Lisabeth Tabor Hughes to serve on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

"Justice Lisabeth Tabor Hughes has a long and impressive record of service and a history of handing down fair and judicious decisions,” said President Obama. “She will be a thoughtful and distinguished addition to the Sixth Circuit, and I am extremely pleased to put her forward.”

Justice Lisabeth Tabor Hughes has served as a Justice on the Kentucky Supreme Court since 2007 and has had a distinguished career as both a jurist and in private practice. 

Born in Marion, Kentucky and raised in the neighboring town of Princeton, Kentucky, Justice Hughes earned her B.A. with highest honors in 1977 from the University of Louisville and her J.D. magna cum laude in 1980 from the University of Louisville Louis D. Brandeis School of Law, where she served as Executive Editor of the school’s law review and was named Outstanding Graduate.  Justice Hughes began her career as an associate at the law firm of Greenebaum Doll & McDonald (now Bingham Greenebaum Doll LLP) and later joined the law firm of Hirn Doheny Reed & Harper, where she became a partner in 1994.  In 1996, she became a founding partner at the law firm of Reed Weitkamp Schell & Vice.  While in private practice, Justice Hughes handled a variety of business and commercial litigation in both state and federal courts.  In 1997, she was appointed to the Kentucky Court of Appeals, a position she held until 1998.  In 1999, Justice Hughes was appointed and then elected to the Jefferson Circuit Court, where she served for over seven years before being re-appointed and later elected to the Kentucky Court of Appeals in 2006.  In 2007, she was appointed to serve as a Justice on the Kentucky Supreme Court, and was subsequently elected to that position in 2008 and re-elected in 2014.

Justice Hughes was named the Judge of the Year by the Louisville Bar Association in 2012.  She is an active member and former president of the Louis D. Brandeis American Inn of Court, has chaired the Kentucky Civil Rules Committee since 2011 and has served on the Board of Trustees of the Kentucky Bar Foundation’s IOLTA (Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts) Fund since 2008. 

Source: The White House, Office of the Press Secretary