Appellate Judges
Judge Susan Harrell Black
Judge Susan Harrell Black is a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. She was appointed to that court in 1992 by President George H.W. Bush. From 1979 to 1992, she was a United States District Judge for the Middle District of Florida, having been appointed by President Jimmy Carter. From 1990 to 1992, she was Chief Judge of that court. Judge Black earned her B.A. from Florida State University in 1964, and her J.D. from the University of Florida in 1967. Before her appointment to the Bench, she had been a state district court judge, assistant city attorney for the City of Jacksonville, and an attorney with the Army Corps of Engineers. Her chambers are in Jacksonville, Florida.
Judge Allyson K. Duncan
Judge Allyson K. Duncan is a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, having been appointed by President George W. Bush. She had previously served as an associate judge of the North Carolina Court of Appeals. From 1998 to 2003, Judge Duncan was in the private practice of law in Raleigh, and had earlier served as a commissioner of the North Carolina Utilities Commission, and an attorney at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She taught property, employment discrimination, labor law, and appellate advocacy as an associate professor at the North Carolina Central University School of Law from 1986 to 1990 and in 2003-2004 served as president of the North Carolina Bar Association. A Durham native, Judge Duncan received her BA from Hampton University in1972 and her JD from Duke Law School in 1975. She is a life member of the Duke Law Board of Visitors and was appointed in 2011 to the Duke University Board of Trustees.
Judge Patrick E. Higginbotham
Judge Patrick E. Higginbotham is a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, having been appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1982. From 1975 to 1982, he was United States District Judge for the Northern District of Texas. He received a B.A. and LL.B. from the University of Alabama, and was in private practice in Dallas before being appointed to the bench. He assumed senior status in 2006, but still maintains a full judicial workload as well as teaching constitutional law at St. Mary’s Law School. He is author of many law review articles, and has served in several capacities on judicial committees dealing the judicial administration and the federal rules. He is a life member of the American Law Institute. He frequently lectures at law schools on such topics as the death penalty and jury trials. His chambers are in Austin, Texas.
Judge Paul Niemeyer
Judge Paul V. Niemeyer of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit teaches in Duke's upperclass Appellate Practice course. Judge Niemeyer received his A.B. from Kenyon College and his law degree from Notre Dame. He also studied at the University of Munich in Germany. Judge Niemeyer practiced with Piper and Marbury in Baltimore. After a brief stint on the district court, he was appointed to the Fourth Circuit in 1990 by President Bush. Judge Niemeyer is a member of the American Law Institute, and he serves on the Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. His chambers are in Baltimore.
Judge Mary M. Schroeder
Judge Mary M. Schroeder is a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, having been appointed by President Jimmy Carter in 1979. She served as chief judge of the court from 2000 to 2007. She served as a judge of the Arizona Court of Appeals, Division One, in Phoenix, from 1975 to 1979, after being in the private practice of law. Judge Schroeder has also worked as a trial attorney in the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., and taught law as a visiting lecturer at Arizona State University Law School and at Duke Law. She received her BA from Swarthmore College in 1962 and her JD from the University of Chicago Law School in 1965.
Judge Anthony J. Scirica
Judge Anthony J. Scirica of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit teaches in Duke's upperclass Appellate Practice course. He received his B.A. from Wesleyan University and his law degree from the University of Michigan. He entered private practice in the Philadelphia area, and served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives where he drafted the state divorce code, the sentencing guidelines act, and the witness immunity act. He served as the chairman of the state commission on sentencing. Judge Scirica was appointed to the U.S. District Court in 1984, and to the court of appeals in 1987. His chambers are in Philadelphia, and he currently serves on the Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
