Jennifer Anna Dorsey (née Cole; born April 26, 1971) is an American attorney and jurist serving as 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 District of Nevada United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * United (2003 film), ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * United (2011 film) ...

Early life and education

Dorsey was born in 1971 in

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

. She received her

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, ''cum laude'', in 1994 from the

University of Nevada, Las Vegas The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. It includes the S ...

. She received her

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 ...

, ''cum laude'', in 1997 from the

Pepperdine University School of Law The Pepperdine University Rick J. Caruso School of Law (formerly Pepperdine University School of Law) is the law school of Pepperdine University, a private research university in Los Angeles County, California. The school offers the Juris Doc ...

Career

From January 1996 to February 1997, Dorsey was an intern for the firm Totaro & Shanahan and participated to the California Pro Bono Project.Response of Jennifer A. Dorsey Nominee to be United States District Court Judge for the District of Nevada to the Written Questions of Senator Amy Klobuchar
''Senate.gov'', 23 April 2013 She joined the Las Vegas law firm of Kemp, Jones & Coulthard LLP upon graduation from law school and became a partner in that firm in 2004, serving until 2013. She practiced before both state and federal courts and handled a wide variety of matters including appeals, class actions, and complex commercial litigation.

Federal judicial service

On September 19, 2012,

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

nominated Dorsey to serve as a United States District Judge for the United States District Court for the District of Nevada, to the seat vacated by Judge

Larry R. Hicks Larry R. Hicks (born December 13, 1943) is a United States federal judge, senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Nevada. Education and career Born in Evanston, Illinois, Evanston, Illinois, Hi ...

, who 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 December 13, 2012. On January 2, 2013, her nomination was returned to the President, due to the sine die adjournment of the Senate. On January 3, 2013, she was re-nominated to the same office. Her nomination was reported by 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 May 16, 2013, by a 10–8 vote. Her nomination was confirmed on July 9, 2013 by a 54–41 vote. She received her commission on the same day.

Notable rulings

In February 2019, she ruled in favor of

Brock Lesnar Brock Edward Lesnar ( ; born July 12, 1977) is an American-Canadian professional wrestler, former mixed martial artist (MMA), amateur wrestler, and professional American football player who holds both American and Canadian citizenship. He is ...

against

Mark Hunt Mark Richard Hunt (born 23 March 1974) is a New Zealand former mixed martial artist and kickboxer of Samoan descent, currently living in Sydney, Australia. Hunt competed in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) until 2018 and was the winn ...

after Lesnar won a 2017 fight but failed to pass the drug test. In March 2019, she ruled in favor of

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

and its singer John Newman against the singer Alisa Apps, arguing that generic words and short phrases cannot be copyrighted. In April 2019, she sentenced a man who possessed 47,000 files of child pornography to nine years in prison.Henderson man sentenced to prison for possessing child porn
''Ktnv.com'', 15 April 2019

References

External links