David M. Lawson (born January 11, 1951) is a Senior

United States district judge The United States district courts are the trial courts of the U.S. federal judiciary. There is one district court for each federal judicial district, which each cover one U.S. state or, in some cases, a portion of a state. Each district cou ...

of the

United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan (in case citations, E.D. Mich.) is the federal district court with jurisdiction over of the eastern half of the Lower Peninsula of the State of Michigan. The Court is based ...

Education and career

Born in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

, Lawson graduated from Brother Rice High School in 1969. He received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

degree in English from the

University of Notre Dame The University of Notre Dame du Lac, known simply as Notre Dame ( ) or ND, is a private Catholic university, Catholic research university in Notre Dame, Indiana, outside the city of South Bend, Indiana, South Bend. French priest Edward Sorin fo ...

in 1973 and a Juris Doctor from

Wayne State University Law School Wayne State University Law School (Wayne Law) is the law school of Wayne State University in Detroit. Wayne Law is located in Midtown, Detroit's Cultural Center. Founded in 1927, the law school offers juris doctor (J.D.), master of laws (LL.M.), ...

in 1976. He was a law clerk for Justice

James L. Ryan James Leo Ryan (born November 19, 1932) is an inactive senior United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Education and career Born in Detroit, Michigan, Ryan graduated from Detroit Catholic Centra ...

Michigan Supreme Court The Michigan Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is Michigan's court of last resort and consists of seven justices. The Court is located in the Michigan Hall of Justice at 925 Ottawa Street in Lansing, the sta ...

from 1976 to 1977. He was in private practice from 1977 to 2000. While in private practice he worked for the law firms Lawson and Lawson, Liza Mulcahy, and Hill Lewis (which later merged and became the firm Clark Hill). During that time he also served as a Special Assistant Attorney General and Special Prosecutor for the

Oakland County Oakland County is a county in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is part of the metropolitan Detroit area, located northwest of the city. As of the 2020 Census, its population was 1,274,395, making it the second-most populous county in Michigan, b ...

One-Man Grand Jury from 1978 to 1980 and as a Special Prosecuting Attorney for Livingston County from 1991 to 1993.

Federal judicial service

On August 5, 1999, Lawson was nominated by President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

to a seat on the

vacated by Avern Cohn. Lawson was confirmed by the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

on May 24, 2000, and received his commission on June 2, 2000. From 2000 until 2006 Judge Lawson sat in Bay City as the sole judge in the Northern Division of the Eastern District of Michigan. In October 2006 Lawson moved to the Southern Division into a courtroom recently vacated by Judge

Gerald Ellis Rosen Gerald Ellis Rosen (born October 26, 1951) is a former United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. Professional career Prior to taking the bench, Rosen was a senior partner in the law ...

. Judge Thomas Lamson Ludington then moved into Judge Lawson's courtroom in Bay City. Lawson assumed

senior status Senior status is a form of semi- retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of service as a federal judge must be at leas ...

on August 6, 2021.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Lawson, David M. 1951 births Living people 20th-century American judges 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American judges American prosecutors Judges of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan Lawyers from Detroit United States district court judges appointed by Bill Clinton University of Notre Dame alumni Wayne State University Law School alumni