Madeline Clair Hughes Haikala (born November 4, 1964) 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
.
Biography
Haikala was born Madeline Clair Hughes in 1964, in
,
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
. 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 in 1986 from
Williams College
Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim Williams, a col ...
. 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 ...
in 1989 from
Tulane University Law School
Tulane University Law School is the law school of Tulane University. It is located on Tulane's Uptown campus in New Orleans, Louisiana. Established in 1847, it is the 12th oldest law school in the United States.
In addition to the usual common ...
, graduating
Order of the Coif
The Order of the Coif is an honor society for United States law school graduates. The name is a reference to the ancient English order of advocates, the serjeants-at-law, whose courtroom attire included a coif—a white lawn or silk skullcap, whi ...
. She worked in private practice from 1989 until 2011, serving at the law firm of Lightfoot, Franklin & White LLC in
Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of the U.S. state of Alabama. Birmingham is the seat of Jefferson County, Alabama's most populous county. As of the 2021 census estimates, Birmingham had a population of 197,575, down 1% fr ...
, handling a broad range of
commercial litigation at the trial and
appellate
In law, an appeal is the process in which cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of clarifying and ...
levels, before state and federal courts. From 1998 to 2005, she taught Appellate Law at
Cumberland School of Law as an
adjunct professor
An adjunct professor is a type of academic appointment in higher education who does not work at the establishment full-time. The terms of this appointment and
the job security of the tenure vary in different parts of the world, however the genera ...
. She served as a
United States magistrate judge
In United States federal courts, magistrate judges are judges appointed to assist U.S. district court judges in the performance of their duties. Magistrate judges generally oversee first appearances of criminal defendants, set bail, and conduct ...
in the Northern District of Alabama from 2012 to 2013.
Federal judicial service
On May 9, 2013, President
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 Haikala to serve as a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, to the seat vacated by Judge
Inge Prytz Johnson
Inge Prytz Johnson (born December 19, 1945) is an inactive Senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama.
Early life and education
Born in Svendborg, Denmark, Johnson received a Cer ...
, 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 October 24, 2012.
[ She received a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on June 19, 2013, and her nomination was reported to the floor of 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 July 18, 2013, by a voice vote
In parliamentary procedure, a voice vote (from the Latin ''viva voce'', meaning "live voice") or acclamation is a voting method in deliberative assemblies (such as legislatures) in which a group vote is taken on a topic or motion by responding vo ...
. The Senate confirmed her nomination on October 14, 2013, by a 90–0 vote.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Haikala, Madeline
1964 births
Living people
20th-century American lawyers
20th-century American women lawyers
21st-century American judges
21st-century American women judges
21st-century women judges
21st-century American women lawyers
21st-century American lawyers
Judges of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama
Lawyers from New Orleans
Tulane University Law School alumni
United States district court judges appointed by Barack Obama
United States magistrate judges
Williams College alumni