Michael Peter Shea (born April 17, 1967) is the Chief United States district judge of the

United States District Court for the District of Connecticut The United States District Court for the District of Connecticut (in case citations, D. Conn.) is the federal district court whose jurisdiction is the state of Connecticut. The court has offices in Bridgeport, Hartford, and New Haven. Appeals ...

Biography

Born in April 1967 in

Hartford, Connecticut Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...

, Shea received his

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, summa cum laude, in 1989 from

Amherst College Amherst College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. Founded in 1821 as an attempt to relocate Williams College by its then-president Zephaniah Swift Moore, Amherst is the third oldest institution of higher educatio ...

. He received his

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 1993 from

Yale Law School Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by ''U ...

. He served as a

law clerk A law clerk or a judicial clerk is a person, generally someone who provides direct counsel and assistance to a lawyer or judge by researching issues and drafting legal opinions for cases before the court. Judicial clerks often play significant ...

to United States Circuit Judge James L. Buckley of the

United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit (in case citations, D.C. Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. It has the smallest geographical jurisdiction of any of the U.S. federal appellate cou ...

from 1993 to 1994. He worked at Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton LLP as an associate and then joined Day Pitney as an associate in 1998 and became a partner in that firm in 2003. At Day Pitney, he chaired the firm's Appellate Practice Group, while also representing individuals, non-profits and corporations in civil and criminal cases. In private practice, he argued twenty civil and criminal appeals in state and federal courts.

Federal judicial service

On February 2, 2012, 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 Shea to be United States District Judge for the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut. He would replace Judge Christopher F. Droney who was elevated to the

United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (in case citations, 2d Cir.) is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals. Its territory comprises the states of Connecticut, New York and Vermont. The court has appellate juri ...

on December 1, 2011. He received a hearing 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 March 28, 2012 and his nomination was reported to the floor on April 26, 2012, by a 15–3 vote, with Senators

Lee Lee may refer to: Name Given name * Lee (given name), a given name in English Surname * Chinese surnames romanized as Li or Lee: ** Li (surname 李) or Lee (Hanzi ), a common Chinese surname ** Li (surname 利) or Lee (Hanzi ), a Chinese ...

, Coburn and Cornyn casting the no votes. The Senate confirmed his nomination on December 5, 2012, by a 72–23 vote. He received his commission on December 7, 2012. He became chief judge on November 1, 2022.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Shea, Michael P. 1967 births Living people 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American judges Amherst College alumni Connecticut lawyers Judges of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut United States district court judges appointed by Barack Obama Yale Law School alumni