Laurie Louise Smith Camp (November 28, 1953 – September 23, 2020) was 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 Nebraska.

Early life and education

Born in

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest city ...

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...

, Smith Camp graduated from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

with 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 in 1974 and later from the

University of Nebraska–Lincoln College of Law The University of Nebraska College of Law is one of the professional graduate schools of University of Nebraska system. It was founded in 1888 and became part of University of Nebraska in 1891. According to Nebraska's official 2017 ABA-required di ...

, where she earned 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 ...

in 1977.

Legal career

Smith Camp started her legal career as an Associate General Counsel with the First National Bank & Trust Company from 1977 to 1978. She later was in private practice from 1978 to 1980. Later in 1980, she was employed as the General Counsel for the

Nebraska Department of Correctional Services The Nebraska Department of Correctional Services (NDCS) is the state corrections agency for the U.S. state of Nebraska. NDCS currently has 9 institutions confining over 5,000 inmates. All male inmates coming into the system enter through the Dia ...

where she served until 1991. In 1991, Smith Camp became the Chief of the civil rights section for the Nebraska Department of Justice until 1995. She was a Chief Deputy Attorney General for criminal matters with the Nebraska Department of Justice from 1995 until her nomination to the federal bench in 2001.

Federal judicial career

In 2001, Smith Camp was nominated to the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska by President George W. Bush on September 4, 2001 to a seat vacated by

William G. Cambridge William George Cambridge (December 13, 1931 – September 30, 2004) was a United States federal judge, United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska. Education and career Born in Atlantic, Iowa, ...

. She was confirmed by the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

on October 23, 2001 and received her commission the next day. She served as Chief Judge from December 1, 2011 to November 1, 2018. She 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 1, 2018. Her service terminated on September 23, 2020, due to her death in Omaha.

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Smith Camp, Laurie 1953 births 2020 deaths Stanford University alumni University of Nebraska College of Law alumni Judges of the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska United States district court judges appointed by George W. Bush 21st-century American judges Lawyers from Omaha, Nebraska 21st-century American women judges