Intro and Acknowledgments | American Bar Association Profile of the Legal Profession

Introduction

Letter from ABA President Reginald Turner

Last year, my hometown federal courthouse in Detroit got a new judge. Her name is Shalina Kumar and she is the first federal judge of South Asian descent in Michigan. Her father is a physician from India.

A year earlier, the western side of the state got a new federal judge named Hala Jarbou. She is the first Chaldean American federal judge in the nation. She migrated from Iraq as a child with her family.

Judge Kumar and Judge Jarbou are welcome additions to the bench. Besides their wisdom and experience, they bring a small measure of diversity to our federal judiciary, which is still largely white and largely male.

Times are changing. This 2022 ABA Profile of the Legal Profession includes a new chapter with many details about the growing diversity of the federal judiciary – and how far we still have to go.

For example, consider:
• The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, based in St. Louis, has 18 judges, but only one is female.
• Alaska’s population is 40% non-white, yet all seven of its federal trial judges are white.
• Sixteen states with a combined 104 federal trial judges have no federal judges of color.

This new Profile report is a treasure trove of information about lawyers and the legal field. Take a look. I am confident you will learn something new about our profession.

Reginald M. Turner
President, American Bar Association
July 2022

Introduction and Acknowledgments

The federal judiciary is vast, but not terribly varied. Across the nation, there are more than 1,400 sitting federal judges. They are overwhelmingly male and overwhelmingly white. But times are slowly changing.

This 2022 Profile of the Legal Profession documents that gradual change. Chapter 1 is an in-depth look at the changing face of the judiciary, beyond the confirmation of the first Black female justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. It’s a snapshot of the federal judiciary at a moment when new appointments are making it more diverse.

This fourth annual Profile report was produced by the ABA Media Relations and Strategic Communications Division. Our goal is to provide authoritative data for lawyers, academics and journalists. Statistics are from sources within the ABA, the federal government and nonprofit groups.

We are indebted to the following organizations and government agencies that provided information for this report:

• The Association of American Law Schools
• The Brennan Center for Justice
• The Federal Judicial Center
• The Law School Admission Council
• The National Association for Law Placement
• The National Association of Women Lawyers
• The National Conference of Bar Examiners
• Rosenblatt’s Deans Database
• The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
• The U.S. Census Bureau
• Courts, state bars and bar associations in every state