On Thursday, September 8, 2022, the U.S. Senate confirmed Tennessee lawyer Andre Mathis to a seat on the Sixth Circuit. That seat opened up on November 18, 2021, when Judge Bernice Donald announced she was taking senior status.
Mathis, 41, will be the first Black man, and second Black person, from Tennessee to sit on the Cincinnati, Ohio-based 6th Circuit. The last time a Black man was on that court was a quarter century ago, the White House says.
Judge Mathis brings an impressive range of civil and criminal litigation experience with him to the bench.
After graduating from law school, Mathis joined the Memphis law firm of Glankler Brown as an associate. He worked in criminal defense as a member of the Criminal Justice Act Panel for the Western District of Tennessee and with the Tennessee Innocence Project. He served as a member of the Magistrate Judge Merit Selection Panel for the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee from 2010 to 2011 and again from 2019 to 2020. He was also a member of the Federal Defender Evaluation Committee for the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit from 2012 to 2013. He served on the Disciplinary Hearing Committee of the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility from 2015 to 2021 and on the Shelby County Ethics Commission from 2013 to 2017.
In January 2020, Mathis joined the Memphis office of Butler Snow LLP.
