Stephanie Kulp Seymour (born October 16, 1940) is a senior

United States circuit judge In the United States, federal judges are judges who serve on courts established under Article Three of the U.S. Constitution. They include the chief justice and the associate justices of the U.S. Supreme Court, the circuit judges of the U.S. ...

of the

United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit (in case citations, 10th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the district courts in the following districts: * District of Colorado * District of Kansas * Distr ...

. She was the first female federal court judge in Oklahoma.

Background and Career

Seymour was born in

Battle Creek Battle Creek is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan, in northwest Calhoun County, at the confluence of the Kalamazoo and Battle Creek rivers. It is the principal city of the Battle Creek, Michigan Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA), which en ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

in 1940, the second oldest of four children. Seymour and her family traveled extensively when she was young, visiting all but three states by car by the time she went to college. Though neither of her parents had a college education, they strongly influenced Seymour to obtain the highest level of education possible. Seymour 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 year ...

degree from Smith College in 1962, graduating

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...

and magna cum laude, and her Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School in 1965.Smith College Rally Day: Honors, Hats and a Secret Revealed
''Smith College News Release'' (September 10, 2009). At Harvard Law School, she was one of 23 women in a class of 550. Seymour was in private practice in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

from 1965 to 1966, in

Tulsa Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the state of Oklahoma and 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tulsa Metropolitan Area, a region with ...

, Oklahoma from 1966 to 1967, in

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

from 1968 to 1969, and in Tulsa again from 1971 to 1979. In Houston, she was the first woman hired by

Baker Botts Baker Botts L.L.P. is an American law firm of around 725 lawyers. Headquartered in One Shell Plaza in Downtown Houston, Texas, the firm has energy and technology related clients. It is referred to as the second-oldest law firm west of the Mi ...

Federal judicial service

Seymour was nominated by President

Jimmy Carter James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 76th governor of Georgia from 1 ...

on August 28, 1979, to the

, to a new seat created by 92 Stat. 1629. She 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 October 31, 1979, and received her commission on November 2, 1979. She served as Chief Judge from 1994 to 2000. She assumed

senior status Senior status is a form of semi- retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of service as a federal judge must be at leas ...

on October 16, 2005.

References

External links

*
Voices of Oklahoma interview.
First person interview conducted on September 5, 2019, with Stephanie Kulp Seymour.
Oral History Interview with Stephanie Kulp Seymour
1940 births Living people 20th-century American judges 21st-century American judges American women lawyers Harvard Law School alumni Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit Massachusetts lawyers Oklahoma lawyers People from Battle Creek, Michigan Smith College alumni Texas lawyers United States court of appeals judges appointed by Jimmy Carter 20th-century American women judges 21st-century American women judges People associated with Baker Botts {{US-federal-judge-stub

Background and Career

Federal judicial service

See also

References

External links