Robert Ashby Pate (born March 20, 1978) is an American lawyer with the law firm of Lightfoot, Franklin & White LLC and a former Associate Justice of the

Supreme Court of Palau The Supreme Court of Palau is the highest court of Palau. Article X of the Constitution vests the Supreme Court with judicial power and provides for its operation and jurisdiction. The Supreme Court is divided into a Trial Division and an Appel ...

Judicial service

As one of four justices on the Republic's highest court, Pate presided over several hundred civil and criminal cases as a trial judge and served as a panelist on over 40 civil and criminal appeals. Pate was appointed to the Court at the age of 34 by President Johnson Toribiong. In 2014, Pate's order granting a writ of

habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...

in ''In re Angelino'', which condemned the

solitary confinement Solitary confinement is a form of imprisonment in which the inmate lives in a single cell with little or no meaningful contact with other people. A prison may enforce stricter measures to control contraband on a solitary prisoner and use additi ...

system in Palau's only correctional facility, garnered attention in the Asia-Pacific region and among noted international human rights advocates as "an impressive national court application of international human rights norms". In 2009, while serving as Senior Court Counsel for the Palau Supreme Court, Pate also helped establish Palau's first

jury trial A jury trial, or trial by jury, is a Trial, legal proceeding in which a jury makes a decision or Question of law, findings of fact. It is distinguished from a bench trial in which a judge or Judicial panel, panel of judges makes all decisions. ...

system.

Legal career

After law school, Pate served as a Law Clerk to

U. W. Clemon U.W. Clemon (born April 9, 1943) is an Alabama attorney in private practice and a former United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. He was among the first ten African-American lawyers ad ...

of the

United States District Court The United States district courts are the trial courts of the United States federal judiciary, U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each United States federal judicial district, federal judicial district, which each cover o ...

, Northern District of Alabama, Alabama's first African-American

federal judge Federal judges are judges appointed by a federal level of government as opposed to the state/provincial/local level. United States A US federal judge is appointed by the US President and confirmed by the US Senate in accordance with Article 3 of ...

. In 2016, Pate joined Lightfoot where his practice focuses on international disputes, appellate work, and general commercial litigation. Pate was appointed as co-prosecutor in the 2016 judicial ethics trial of Alabama's "Ten Commandments" judge, Chief Justice Roy Moore. He delivered closing arguments in the trial, arguing that the Chief Justice had defied the U.S. Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage decision in

Obergefell v. Hodges ''Obergefell v. Hodges'', ( ), is a landmark LGBT rights case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that the fundamental right to marry is guaranteed to same-sex couples by both the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection ...

. In a unanimous verdict, the Alabama Court of the Judiciary suspended the Chief Justice from office for the remainder of his elected term, without pay.

Publications and lectures

In 2016-2017, Pate delivered a series of lectures entitled ''Be The Light'' to numerous organizations across the country. Other presentations and publications include: —Be the Light, Presentation to the American College of Trial Lawyers, Spring Meeting (2016), Maui, HI. —The Future of Harmonization: Soft Law Instruments and the Principled Advance of International Lawmaking, 13 Touro Int’l L. Rev. 2, 142 (2010) (author). —The Big Wet Now: Observations for Young Internationalists, Presentation to the Dean Rusk Center for International Law and Policy, University of Georgia School of Law (2013) (lecture). —The Clear Opener: How to avoid mucking up the most crucial part of discourse, Bryan A. Garner, The American Bar Association Journal (August 2014)(interviewed and cited by Mr. Garner on judicial order writing and Federal Judicial Center training).

Education

Pate graduated summa cum laude from the

University of Colorado Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado syst ...

with a B.A. in English in 2000. Pate graduated magna cum laude from

Samford University Samford University is a private Christian university in Homewood, Alabama. In 1841, the university was founded as Howard College by Baptists. Samford University describes itself as the 87th oldest institution of higher learning in the United Sta ...

's Cumberland School of Law, where he also served as Editor-in-Chief of the Law Review. Pate earned his LL.M. in International Commercial and Business Law in 2010 from the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and 26 schools of study. The annual income of the institution f ...

where he graduated first in his class and was awarded the Sir Roy Goode Prize in international law.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pate, Ashby 1978 births Lawyers from Birmingham, Alabama Living people University of Colorado Boulder alumni Cumberland School of Law alumni Alumni of the University of East Anglia Palauan judges