Beth Robinson, ’89, Nominated to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Biden's Latest Nominees Include Two Firsts for LGBT Judges

President Joe Biden on Thursday announced four more judicial nominees, including a Vermont justice who would be the first openly LGBT woman to sit on a federal circuit court if confirmed.

The president tapped Beth Robinson, an associate justice on the Vermont Supreme Court and former counsel to Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Before joining the Vermont Supreme Court in 2011, Robinson was a civil litigator at Langrock Sperry & Wool from 1993 to 2011 focusing on employment law, workers’ compensation, contract disputes and family law and representing LGBT individuals in civil rights cases.

She served as co-counsel in Baker v. State of Vermont, in which the Vermont Supreme Court ruled the state’s ban on same-sex marriage violated state law. The 1999 decision led to the state Legislature’s enactment of Vermont’s civil union law the following year.

Robinson also served as a law clerk for Judge David B. Sentelle on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

Read more at Law.com