Gabrielle Kirk McDonald
United States District Court for the
Southern District of Texas
Houston, Texas
(Resigned)
Born: St. Paul, Minnesota-April 12, 1942.
Education:
Boston University; Hunter College; Howard University School of Law
(LL.B., cum laude, 1966), where she was Notes Editor for the Howard Law
Journal.
With her appointment on May 11, 1979, Judge McDonald became
the first African-American and the first African-American woman to be
appointed to a federal court in the State of Texas. She was appointed
by President Carter. Judge McDonald left the court in 1988.
Gabrielle Kirk
McDonald was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and raised in Manhattan. She
attended Boston University (1959-1961) and Hunter College (1961-1963).
Without the benefit of an undergraduate degree, McDonald went on to
Howard University School of Law, graduating first in her class in 1966.
She had a distinguished law school career, receiving awards for the
highest grade in International Law, and American Jurisprudence Awards
for the highest grades in Federal Jurisdiction, Land Finance, and
Constitutional Law. McDonald also received the Kappa Beta Pi Legal
Sorority Award for academic excellence, and a Book Award, The
Petitioners, for the best oral argument and brief in appellate
practice.
Judge McDonald
began her professional career as a staff attorney with the NAACP Legal
Defense & Educational Fund, Inc. in New York City (1966-1969). From
1969 to 1979, she was a founding partner in the Houston, Texas law firm
of McDonald & McDonald (1969-1979), where she specialized in
plaintiffs' discrimination cases.
In addition,
McDonald taught law during her years in private practice. In 1970, she
held the position of Assistant Professor of Law at the Thurgood
Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University, and she later
became an Adjunct Professor of Law there (1975-1977). McDonald also
served as a Lecturer at the University of Texas School of Law in
Austin, Texas, and as a Professor of Law at St. Mary's School of Law in
San Antonio, Texas.
Judge McDonald
was appointed to the federal bench in 1979. With that appointment, she
became the third African-American to be appointed to the federal bench
in the South, and the third African-American woman appointed to the
federal judiciary in the nation.
She resigned from
the bench in 1988 to join the law firm of Matthes & Granscomb. In
1992, she became Counsel to Walker & Satterthwaite.
In
September of 1993, Judge McDonald received the highest number of votes
from the General Assembly of the United Nations to serve as one of
eleven judges of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former
Yugoslavia, conducting international war crimes trials. In May of 1997,
she was elected to another four year term and in September of 1997, she
succeeded Judge Antonio Cassese of Italy as the Tribunal's President.
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