Chief Judge Michael J. Davis

Chief Judge Michael J. Davis was appointed by President Clinton and took the oath of office on March 30, 1994. He became Chief Judge of the District of Minnesota on July 1, 2008. He was the first African-American Federal Judge in Minnesota.

Chief Judge Davis received a B.A. degree in Political Science from Macalester College (St. Paul, Minnesota) in 1969. While at Macalester College, Chief Judge Davis was a teaching assistant in the Political Science Department and was a Varsity basketball letterman. He received a J.D. degree from the University of Minnesota Law School where he was Director of the Municipal Court Misdemeanor Defense Clinic and Chair of the Black Law Students Association.

After law school, Chief Judge Davis studied at the Hague Academy of International Law, The Hague, Netherlands. He served as a criminal defense lawyer at the Neighborhood Justice Center in St. Paul, Legal Rights Center in Minneapolis, where he is currently a board member, and as an Assistant Public Defender in Hennepin County.

In 1983, Chief Judge Davis was appointed to the Fourth Judicial Municipal Court of Minnesota. In 1984, he was elevated, by appointment, to the District Court bench where he served before being appointed to the Federal bench in 1994.

Chief Judge Davis has been an Adjunct Professor at the University of Minnesota Law School for the last 25 years. He has lectured at Oxford University, Magdalen College (summer 2003), and the FBI Academy Quantico, Virginia (Forensic DNA Technology and the Courtroom). In 2006, Chief Judge Davis lectured in Cairo, Egypt, as part of a training program for Egyptian Judges of the Courts of First Instance regarding Intellectual Property and Injunctions. In 2007, Chief Judge Davis traveled to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on behalf of the United States State Department and the Department of Commerce to encourage Saudi Arabian judges to visit the United States.

In 1999, Chief Justice Rehnquist appointed Chief Judge Davis to the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court for a seven-year term. In December 2001, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation appointed Chief Judge Davis to preside over the Baycol Multidistrict Litigation (or "MDL"). The Baycol MDL became the third largest MDL in the history of the United States, behind the asbestos and silicon breast implant litigations. In this capacity, Chief Judge Davis supervised pretrial matters for 14,500 cases, which represent the claims of tens of thousands of individual plaintiffs from all of the fifty United States.

Chief Judge Davis received an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree in 2001 from Macalester College, and in 1989, he received the Outstanding Alumni Award. He was awarded the 2004 Judicial Professionalism Award by the Hennepin County Bar Association. Chief Judge Davis served as President of the Minnesota Chapter of the Federal Bar Association from 2004 to 2005. Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc. Epsilon Rho Chapter recognized Chief Judge Davis as the 2005 Citizen of the Year. He is an Advisory Board Member of the Jack Mason Law and Democracy Initiative, a project of Books for Africa, and is a member of the Sigma Pi Phi Omicron Boulé Fraternity.

Judge Davis's Chambers Information:

Courtroom: 15 East

Judicial Assistant:
Gerri Rishel (612) 664-5070

Law Clerk:
Katie Dunn (612) 664-5071

Law Clerk:
Amgie Munoz-Kaphing (612) 664-5072

Law Clerk:
Clare Priest (612) 664-5074

Courtroom Deputy:
Kristine Wegner (612) 664-5073

Court Reporter:
Lori Simpson (612) 664-5104
Fax: (612)-664-5077

Chambers:
United States District Court
U.S. Courthouse, Suite 15E
300 South Fourth Street
Minneapolis, MN 55415

Court Reporter:
U.S. Courthouse, Suite 1024
300 South Fourth Street
Minneapolis, MN 55415