Jamal Norman Whitehead (born 1979) is an American lawyer who is a

United States district judge 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 ...

of the

United States District Court for the Western District of Washington The United States District Court for the Western District of Washington (in case citations, W.D. Wash.) is the federal district court whose jurisdiction comprises the following counties of the state of Washington: Clallam, Clark, Cowlitz, Grays H ...

Early life and education

Whitehead was born in the Turnersville section of

Washington Township, Gloucester County, New Jersey Washington Township is a township in Gloucester County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2010 U.S. census, the township's population was 48,677, an increase of 118 from the 2010 census count of 48,559, which in turn reflected an in ...

. He earned 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 years ...

degree in

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

from the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seattle a ...

in 2004 and a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

from the

Seattle University School of Law Seattle University School of Law, or Seattle Law School, or SU Law (formerly University of Puget Sound School of Law) is the law school affiliated with Seattle University, the Northwest's largest independent university. The School is accredite ...

in 2007.

Career

From 2007 to 2010, Whitehead worked as an attorney at Garvey Schubert Barer in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

. From 2010 to 2014, he served as a senior trial attorney in the Seattle office of the

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal agency that was established via the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to administer and enforce civil rights laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination ...

. From 2014 to 2016, he served as an

Assistant United States Attorney An assistant United States attorney (AUSA) is an official career civil service position in the U.S. Department of Justice composed of lawyers working under the U.S. Attorney of each U.S. federal judicial district. They represent the federal gove ...

for the Western District of Washington. From 2016 to 2023, he was a

shareholder A shareholder (in the United States often referred to as stockholder) of a corporation is an individual or legal entity (such as another corporation, a body politic, a trust or partnership) that is registered by the corporation as the legal own ...

at Schroeter Goldmark & Bender in

. Whitehead is a past president of the Loren Miller Bar Association, Washington's oldest and largest minority bar.

Notable cases

In 2018, Whitehead served as co-counsel for a disabled car dealership employee after he was fired by Mercedes-Benz of Seattle when he began using a prosthetic voice box to speak. Whitehead tried the case to verdict before a federal jury, which returned a $5 million verdict in his client's favor. The car dealership appealed the verdict, and Whitehead successfully argued the case before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Court would later affirm the trial court's judgment. In 2021, Whitehead represented private plaintiffs when they sued a private prison, GEO Group, for paying incarcerated ICE detainees $1 a day in its work program. The Court appointed Whitehead as class counsel for over 10,000 detained persons seeking back wages. The state of Washington stated the company must pay detainees the state minimum wage, just as other private corporations doing contract work with the state are required to. After a three-week trial, a federal jury returned a verdict of $17.3 million to the class of workers.

Federal judicial service

On July 13, 2022, President Joe Biden nominated Whitehead to serve as a United States district judge of the

. President Biden nominated Whitehead to the seat vacated by Judge

Richard A. Jones Richard Anthony Jones (born 1950) is an American attorney and jurist serving as a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington. He previously served as a deputy prosecuting attor ...

, who subsequently assumed

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

on September 5, 2022. On September 21, 2022, a hearing on his nomination was held before the

Senate Judiciary Committee The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, informally the Senate Judiciary Committee, is a standing committee of 22 U.S. senators whose role is to oversee the Department of Justice (DOJ), consider executive and judicial nominations, a ...

. On December 1, 2022, his nomination was reported out of committee by a 12–10 vote. On January 3, 2023, his nomination was returned to the President under Rule XXXI, Paragraph 6 of 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 ...

; he was renominated later the same day. On February 2, 2023, his nomination was reported out of committee by an 11–9 vote. On February 28, 2023, the Senate invoked cloture on his nomination by a 51–43 vote. Later that day, his nomination was confirmed by a 51–43 vote. He received his judicial commission on March 14, 2023. He was sworn in on April 4, 2023.

Personal life

During her introduction in front of the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary, senator

Patty Murray Patricia Lynn Murray (; born October 11, 1950) is an American politician and educator who is the senior United States senator from Washington since 1993. A member of the Democratic Party, Murray was in the Washington State Senate from 1988 to ...

said that Whitehead is the first judicial nominee by President Joe Biden to have a physical

disability Disability is the experience of any condition that makes it more difficult for a person to do certain activities or have equitable access within a given society. Disabilities may be Cognitive disability, cognitive, Developmental disability, dev ...

(he uses a

prosthetic leg In medicine, a prosthesis (plural: prostheses; from grc, πρόσθεσις, prósthesis, addition, application, attachment), or a prosthetic implant, is an artificial device that replaces a missing body part, which may be lost through trau ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Whitehead, Jamal 1979 births Living people 21st-century American judges 21st-century American lawyers African-American judges Assistant United States Attorneys Judges of the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington Lawyers from Seattle People from Washington Township, Gloucester County, New Jersey Seattle University School of Law alumni United States district court judges appointed by Joe Biden University of Washington alumni Washington (state) lawyers American lawyers with disabilities 21st-century African-American lawyers