President Barack Obama nominated Ms. Robinson on January 24, 2013, she was confirmed by the Senate on June 27, 2013, and was officially sworn in on July 2, 2013 to a term that expires in October 2017.
Ms. Robinson practiced as a trial attorney for 35 years, handling a wide variety of complex litigation for both plaintiffs and defendants. She is a Fellow of the International Society of Barristers and served as its first female president from 2010 to 2011. In 2011, Ms. Robinson served as independent legal counsel to the Chair of the United Nations Peacebuilding Commission in Liberia. Ms. Robinson served from 1989 to 1997 as a federally-appointed trustee of the Dalkon Shield Trust, which disbursed more than $2.4 billion to more than 300,000 claimants in over 120 countries. She has taught as an adjunct professor at several law schools over the years and, most recently, at the Duke School of Law.
She is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and Michigan Bar, and in 2000 was the Democratic nominee for the Michigan Supreme Court. In 2009, Ms. Robinson was an appointed member of the Judicial Advisory Committee for the Eastern District of Michigan and from 1985 to 1989 she served on the Michigan State Building Authority. She also served as a member of the Michigan State Bar Representative Assembly.
Ms. Robinson earned a B.A. with High Distinction from the University of Michigan-Flint and a J.D. from the UCLA School of Law.
Ms. Robinson was married for 28 years to the late James K. Robinson, former AAG of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice; has two stepchildren, Dr. Steven J. Robinson, of Flint, Michigan, and Renee Robinson Stromberg, of Stockholm, Sweden; and five grandchildren.