Faith Elizabeth Lattimore ( Jenkins; born September 21, 1977) is an American attorney, legal commentator and media personality. On March 11, 2014, she joined MSNBC as a legal analyst. Currently, she is presiding judge over the long-running courtroom series ''

Divorce Court ''Divorce Court'' is an American court show that revolves around settling the disputes of couples going through divorces. The show has had four separate runs, all in first-run syndication. Since the debut of the original series in 1957, it is ...

''. She was also the arbitrator on ''

Judge Faith ''Judge Faith'' is a syndicated American arbitration-based reality court show presided over by former Manhattan Assistant District Attorney Faith Jenkins. The show premiered on September 22, 2014 and ran for 4 seasons until its cancellation on ...

'', a daytime court show, where she rendered decisions in a television courtroom. The court show ended production in 2018.

Early life and education

A native of

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 graduated from

C. E. Byrd High School C. E. Byrd, a Blue Ribbon School, is a high school in Shreveport, Louisiana, United States. In continuous operation since its establishment in 1925, C. E. Byrd is also the eighth-largest high school in the United States of America as of Februa ...

Shreveport, Louisiana Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the third most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, respectively. The Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan area, with a population of 393,406 in 2020, is t ...

and attended nearby

Louisiana Tech University Louisiana Tech University (Louisiana Tech, La. Tech, or simply Tech) is a public research university in Ruston, Louisiana. It is part of the University of Louisiana System and classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activ ...

where she earned her bachelor's degree in political science. Jenkins was involved in

beauty pageant A beauty pageant is a competition that has traditionally focused on judging and ranking the physical attributes of the contestants. Pageants have now evolved to include inner beauty, with criteria covering judging of personality, intelligence, ...

s and won several major titles. She was the first African-American woman to win the Miss Louisiana Tech title. In 2000, she won the

Miss Louisiana The Miss Louisiana competition is the pageant that selects the representative for the state of Louisiana in the Miss America pageant. Although no delegate from Louisiana has ever won the Miss America title, four have placed 1st runner-up. As of ...

title and advanced to compete in the Miss America 2001 competition, where she was named first runner-up, winner of the Quality of Life award, and preliminary winner in swimsuit and talent. Jenkins 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 ...

from the

Southern University Law Center Southern University Law Center is a public law school in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It is part of the historically black Southern University System and was opened for instruction in September 1947. It was authorized by the Louisiana State Board ...

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of counties i ...

, where she was ranked first in her class. On March 8, 2020, Jenkins married singer Kenny Lattimore. In August 2022, they announced that they are expecting their first child.

Career

She started her legal career in the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

office of

Sidley Austin Sidley Austin LLP is an American multinational law firm with approximately 2,000 lawyers in 20 offices worldwide. The firm's headquarters is at One South Dearborn in Chicago's Loop. The firm specializes in a variety of areas in both litigation ...

. After five years as a litigator, she was an Assistant District Attorney, prosecuting criminals at the

Manhattan District Attorney The New York County District Attorney, also known as the Manhattan District Attorney, is the elected district attorney for New York County (Manhattan), New York. The office is responsible for the prosecution of violations of New York state laws ...

's Office. Jenkins has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News Channel and Fox Business Channel as a legal analyst, on shows including ''Fox & Friends'', ''The O'Reilly Factor'', ''Hannity'', ''Politics Nation with Rev. Al Sharpton'', ''Studio B with Shepard Smith'', ''Happening Now'', ''Lou Dobbs Forum'', ''Your World with Neil Cavuto'', and ''Willis Report'', as well as truTV's ''In Session''. She has also contributed opinion editorials addressing current events in the ''New York Daily News''. On May 29, 2014, it was announced that she would headline as a judge on daytime TV show ''Judge Faith'', a "nationally syndicated arbitration-based court" TV series which premiered September 22, 2014. Jenkins is also a host of

true crime True crime is a nonfiction literary, podcast, and film genre in which the author examines an actual crime and details the actions of real people associated with and affected by criminal events. The crimes most commonly include murder; about 40 per ...

documentary series entitled '' Justice By Any Means'', which premiered on December 7, 2015, on TV One. Jenkins now hosts Killer Relationship with Faith Jenkins on

Oxygen Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements as wel ...

. From 2020–22, Jenkins was the presiding judge on ''

''. She left the show in September 2022 to be replaced by

Star Jones Starlet Marie Jones (born March 24, 1962), better known as Star Jones, is an American lawyer, journalist, television personality, fashion designer, author, and women's and diversity advocate. She is best known as one of the first co-hosts on the ...

References

External links

* * Living people People from Shreveport, Louisiana C. E. Byrd High School alumni Louisiana Tech University alumni Southern University alumni Southern University Law Center alumni American beauty pageant winners Miss America 2001 delegates Miss America Preliminary Swimsuit winners Miss America Preliminary Talent winners Miss Louisiana winners 1977 births American legal scholars Women legal scholars Television judges 21st-century American judges 21st-century American women judges {{US-pageant-bio-stub