OFFICE ADDRESS
Potter Stewart U.S. Courthouse, Room 716
100 East Fifth Street
Cincinnati, OH 45202
Phone: (513) 564-

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Magistrate Judge Grace M. Royalty earned a J.D. from the University of Cincinnati College of Law, where she served as Articles Editor of the University of Cincinnati Law Review, and a B.A. in art history from the University of Virginia.

Judge Royalty began her legal career practicing labor and employment law at Taft, Stettinius & Hollister in Cincinnati.  She then served as a law clerk to U.S. District Judge David L. Bunning in the Eastern District of Kentucky and U.S. District Judge Michael H. Watson in the Southern District of Ohio.  In 2006, she joined the chambers of U.S. District Judge Michael R. Barrett as his career law clerk.  Since 2017, she has also served as an adjunct professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Law, where she teaches legal ethics.

Judge Royalty has been actively involved in the legal community.  She is the past president of the Ohio Women’s Bar Association and currently serves on the boards of the Federal Bar Association’s Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky Chapter and the Cincinnati Bar Association.  Judge Royalty is the co-chair of the Cincinnati Bar Association’s Professionalism Committee and Lawyers Connecting Beyond the Law program.

Judge Royalty was appointed to her first eight-year term as a United States Magistrate Judge for the Southern District of Ohio on October 14, 2026.