Osage Nation Congresswoman Shannon Edwards has been appointed to the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary.
Appointed by ABA President Paulette Brown, the committee consists of fifteen members from the federal circuit. Edwards will represent the 10th Circuit states of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming.
According to a news release, the committee’s objective is to provide impartial peer-review evaluations of prospective nominees to assist the White House in assessing whether such individuals should be nominated to the federal judiciary. The committee evaluates the professional qualifications of nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court, U.S. circuit courts of appeals, U.S. district courts, the Court of International Trade, and nominees to the territorial district courts for the Virgin Islands, Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. The committee does not propose, recommend or endorse candidates. It focuses strictly on professional qualifications: integrity, professional competence and judicial temperament, according to the release.
Edwards is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and Georgetown University Law Center. She is a former law clerk to Hon. Luther Eubanks in the Western District of Oklahoma. She has worked as an attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice, and established the Osage Nation Tribal Court as its first Supreme Court Judge in over 90 years. From 1995-2008 she was a partner in the Oklahoma City law firm Monnet, Hayes, Bullis, Thompson and Edwards, according to the release. Since that time she has maintained a solo practice and since 2006 has been a member of the Osage Nation Congress. Edwards has served on all the Congressional Committees and has chaired Budget and Finance, Appropriations, Commerce and Economic Development, Education and Rules and Ethics.
Since 2010, Edwards has been an Appeals Magistrate for the U.S. Department of the Interior, Southern Plains Region. She is currently the Chief Magistrate of the Court. She also assists tribal courts throughout the Nation in assessing their processes and performance, according to the release. She is a member of the American, Oklahoma and Osage County Bar Associations. She is also admitted to practice in the Northern, Eastern and Western Districts of Oklahoma and before the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals and several tribal courts. Her areas of practice include trial and appellate practice, business litigation, Indian law, and insurance law.
“It is a great honor to serve the profession through service on the committee on the Federal Judiciary. I have already been introduced to many outstanding attorneys and future jurists,” Edwards said in the release. “I am happy to bring my perspective as a Native American attorney and judge to a very thorough evaluation process.”
By
Osage News
Original Publish Date: 2015-10-28 00:00:00
