OXFORD, Miss. —The University of Mississippi School of Law will host U.S. District Court Judge Carlton Reeves Thursday, Feb. 27 for a conversation and Q&A session with students.
Reeves has served as District Court Judge since Dec. 30, 2010. In his storied career, he has ruled on a number of cases, involving significant issues, including same-sex marriage (Campaign for Southern Equality v. Bryant), hate crimes (U.S. v. Dedmon, Butler, and Rice), and gun ownership (U.S. v. Brown; U.S. v. Bullock).
Reeves is also the chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission, an agency that establishes sentencing policies and practices for the federal courts, including guidelines regarding the form and severity of punishment for offenders convicted of federal crimes.
He was invited to speak to students by Assistant Professor of Law Jade Craig, who joined the UM Law faculty full-time this year. Craig invites students, practicing attorneys, and all members the community to hear from Reeves about justice in Mississippi.
“I hope that people learn more about the fundamental role that the law and the courts play in giving people access to justice and to resolving the greatest challenges facing our society and our democracy,” Craig said. “I also hope that everyone thinks about what they can do to make Mississippi and the world a better place like Judge Reeves has done.”
Craig clerked for Reeves after graduating from Columbia Law School.
“My clerkship with Judge Reeves was an experience that forever shaped how I think about the law and I learned to practice law as a young lawyer,” Craig said. “He always reminded us that lawyers have a special role to play because we are the ones with the ‘keys to the courthouse.’ People need us to have the best chance of getting justice in court. He charged all of his clerks to ‘go do justice,’ and he has set an example of doing just that in his career as a lawyer, a judge, and chairman of the U.S. Sentencing Commission.”
Prior to his role in the federal judiciary, he was a partner at Pigott Reeves Johnson & Minor, P.A., Chief of the Civil Division for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi, an associate attorney at Phelps Dunbar LLP, and a staff attorney for the Mississippi Supreme Court. He also served as a law clerk for Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Reuben V. Anderson, the first Black student to graduate from UM Law.
Reeves is a native of Yazoo City, Mississippi and an alumnus of Jackson State University. He earned his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1989. He is a former president of the Magnolia Bar Association and Magnolia Bar Foundation. He has received many honors, including: the Magnolia Bar’s R. Jess Brown Award; the Mississippi Bar’s Curtis E. Coker Access to Justice Award; Mississippi State University’s Pre-Law Society Distinguished Jurist Award; an Honorary Degree Doctor of Humane Letters from Hunter College; and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation Medal in Law, the highest external honor bestowed by the university.
The event is free and open to the public.