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Judge Michael J. Newman

 

Standing Orders
Chambers Contact Information

OFFICE ADDRESS
Walter H. Rice Federal Building & U.S. Courthouse Room 505
200 West Second Street
Dayton, OH 45402
Phone: (937) 512-1640
Chambers email: newman_chambers@ohsd.uscourts.gov

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

      Hon. Michael J. Newman is a United States District Judge in the Southern District of Ohio’s Dayton seat of court.  After being recommended by the Bipartisan Judicial Selection Commission created by Senators Portman and Brown, he was nominated by President Trump in March 2020, confirmed by the U.S. Senate in October 2020, and sworn in on November 12, 2020.  Judge Newman previously served in the Dayton seat of court as a United States Magistrate Judge, a position to which he was appointed in 2011, and reappointed in 2019 to a second eight-year term. 

      Judge Newman graduated with honors from the Washington College of Law at American University, and attended the Advanced Mediation Program at Harvard Law School.  He was a law clerk on the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (to Judge Nathaniel R. Jones) and the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio (to Magistrate Judge Jack Sherman, Jr.).  Prior to taking the bench, he was a partner at Dinsmore & Shohl in Cincinnati, where he chaired the firm’s Labor & Employment Appellate Practice Group.  He practiced in the areas of labor and employment, business litigation, ERISA litigation, and appellate litigation, and represented a wide range of clients - from individuals to Fortune 500 companies.  He was also extensively involved in pro bono work, and created and led Dinsmore’s pro bono appellate program in the Sixth Circuit.  While in private practice, he was named a Leading Lawyer, an Ohio Super Lawyer, and one of the Best Lawyers in America in Labor & Employment Law. 

      Judge Newman is a Master in Dayton’s Carl D. Kessler Inn of Court and Cincinnati’s Potter Stewart Inn of Court, and was named a Fellow by the Ohio State Bar Foundation, the American Bar Foundation, the Dayton Bar Association Foundation, and the Federal Bar Association Foundation (Life Fellow).  He has taught as an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Dayton School of Law, the University of Cincinnati College of Law, and the Chase College of Law at Northern Kentucky University.

      Judge Newman’s professional memberships include the Dayton Bar Association (Chair, Federal Practice Committee), the Ohio State Bar Association (Chair, Federal Courts and Practices Committee), and the Federal Bar Association (President of the Cincinnati and Dayton chapters; Judiciary Division Chair; and National President).  He was the first Magistrate Judge in the United States to be appointed National President of the FBA.  His Civics and Service to Others initiative as National President resulted in thousands of young people from all across the country meeting with federal judges to learn about civics and the Third Branch of government.  This civics work continues; Judge Newman was named the FBA’s first Judicial Ambassador for Civics Education, and he has been invited to speak on the topic of civics education by the Federal Judicial Center.  He now co-chairs the Sixth Circuit’s Civics and Outreach Committee, and chairs the Southern District of Ohio’s Civics Committee.

      While FBA president, Judge Newman created two national committees: the Access to Justice Task Force and the Special Committee on Diversity.  His commitment to diversity and inclusion, and access to justice, is longstanding.  He serves on the statewide board of directors of the Law & Leadership Institute, which encourages Ohio high school students from underserved communities to attend college and law school, and he helped lead the effort to start the Greater Dayton Area Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Legal Roundtable.  Locally, he serves on the board of the Greater Dayton Volunteer Lawyers Project and also presides over the first Federal Veteran’s Treatment Court in the Southern District of Ohio, which he started.  To date, more than 75 veterans have graduated from this treatment court after receiving assistance with PTSD and opioid addiction.

      Judge Newman has been recognized by the Federal Magistrate Judges Association for “valuable and dedicated service to all Magistrate Judges,” and was honored to receive the Boots Fisher National Public Service Award given annually to one lawyer in the United States for “exemplary community, public and charitable service.”  He also received the Federal Bar Association’s President’s Award for “leadership [as well as] extraordinary service, and guidance.”  In 2019, he was recognized by Washington University Law School in St. Louis for his “service on the bench, to the legal profession, and to society.”  In 2020, he was honored to receive the Ohio State Bar Foundation’s highest award, the Ritter Award, “for a lifetime of service…in attaining and promoting the highest standards of professionalism, integrity and ethics in the practice of law while assisting other attorneys, the courts and the public to envision and cause changes which improve the justice system in Ohio.”

      Judge Newman and his wife, Rachel, are the proud parents of triplet daughters who attend public school in the Dayton area.