Sarah Elizabeth Savoia Vance (born January 16, 1950) is a

senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

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 Eastern District of Louisiana The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana (in case citations, E.D. La.) is a United States federal court based in New Orleans. Appeals from the Eastern District of Louisiana are taken to the United States Court of Ap ...

Education and career

Born in

Donaldsonville, Louisiana Donaldsonville (historically french: Lafourche-des-Chitimachas) is a city in, and the parish seat of Ascension Parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located along the River Road of the west bank of the Mississippi River, it is a part of the Bat ...

, Vance received 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 from

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University (officially Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as LSU) is a public land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The university was founded in 1860 nea ...

in 1971 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

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 ...

in 1978, where she served as a managing editor of the ''

Tulane Law Review The ''Tulane Law Review'', a publication of the Tulane University Law School, was founded in 1916, and is currently published five times annually. The Law Review has an international circulation and is one of few American law reviews carried by l ...

''.https://www.fedbar.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/VanceNovDec2009-pdf-3.pdf] Michael L. DeShazo, ''Federal Bar Association'' (December 2009). She was in private practice in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

from 1978 to 1994 with the firm of Stone Pigman Walther Wittmann & Hutchinson, practicing in the areas of antitrust and commercial litigation.

Federal judicial service

On June 8, 1994, President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

nominated Vance to a seat on the

vacated by Judge

Henry Mentz Henry Alvan Mentz Jr. (November 10, 1920 – January 23, 2005) was a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Education and career Born on November 10, 1920, in New Orleans, Louisia ...

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 July 1, 1992. Vance was confirmed by 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 ...

on September 28, 1994, and received her commission on September 29, 1994. She served as chief judge of the Eastern District from 2008 to 2015. She assumed

on January 16, 2024. Vance served as the chair of the

Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation The United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation (J.P.M.L. or the Panel) is a special body within the United States federal court system which manages multidistrict litigation. It was established by Congress in 1968 by , and has the ...

from 2014 to 2019. Vance also served on the Executive Committee of the

Judicial Conference of the United States The Judicial Conference of the United States, formerly known as the Conference of Senior Circuit Judges, was created by the United States Congress in 1922 with the principal objective of framing policy guidelines for administration of judicial cour ...

from 2010 to 2013,]" target="_blank" class="mw-redirect" title="">
Peter J. Wanek, ''The Federal Lawyer'', pgs. 36-37 (May 2016). and on the Judicial Conference’s Committee on Administration of the Bankruptcy System from 1997 to 2003. She currently serves on the Judicial Conduct and Disability Committee of the

. From 2003 until 2007, she served on the Board of Directors of the Federal Judicial Center, where she chaired the Committee on Judicial Education. She currently serves on the Federal Judiciary Workplace Conduct Working Group.

Other service

Vance has been a member of the

American Law Institute The American Law Institute (ALI) is a research and advocacy group of judges, lawyers, and legal scholars established in 1923 to promote the clarification and simplification of United States common law and its adaptation to changing social needs. ...

since 1996, and serves on its Executive Committee and its Council. She served as an advisor to the ALI’s International Jurisdiction and Judgments project from 2003 to 2006 and the Restatement of the Law on Liability Insurance from 2010 to 2019, and currently serves as an advisor to the Restatement of the Law Third, Torts: Remedies. Vance also served as president of the New Orleans Chapter of the

Federal Bar Association The Federal Bar Association (FBA) is the primary voluntary professional organization for private and government lawyers and judges practicing and sitting in federal courts in the United States. Six times a year, The Association prints ''The Fede ...

from 2015 to 2016, and as chair of the Louisiana State Bar Association’s Antitrust and Trade Regulation Section from 1993 to 1995. She has been actively involved in the Antitrust Section of the

American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary bar association of lawyers and law students, which is not specific to any jurisdiction in the United States. Founded in 1878, the ABA's most important stated activities are the setting of acad ...

since 1993. She has also served as a member of the Tulane Law School Dean’s Advisory Board since 2008, and as a professor on the adjunct faculty at

Tulane Law School Tulane University Law School is the law school of Tulane University. It is located on Tulane's Uptown campus in New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,1950 births Living people Louisiana State University alumni Tulane University Law School alumni Judges of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana United States district court judges appointed by Bill Clinton People from Donaldsonville, Louisiana 20th-century American judges 21st-century American judges 20th-century American women judges 21st-century American women judges