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10-2024
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Judge Millett and Judge Sutton with Dean Spencer.
Photos by David F. Morrill
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Law School Awards Marshall-Wythe Medallion to Judges Patricia Millett and Jeffrey Sutton, by David F. Morrill
The Honorable Patricia A. Millett of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, and The Honorable Jeffrey S. Sutton, Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit each received the 2024-25 Marshall-Wythe Medallion at a dinner in their honor on October 7 at William & Mary Law School.
The Medallion, presented by Law School Dean A. Benjamin Spencer in the historic Great Hall of the Sir Christopher Wren Building, is the highest honor conferred by the law faculty and recognizes members of the legal community who have demonstrated exceptional leadership and accomplishment.
“We first conferred this award in 1967 and have done so nearly every year since,” Dean Spencer explained. “The award rotates between three categories of recipients: outstanding jurists, outstanding lawyers, and outstanding legal scholars.”
Judges Millett and Sutton join a distinguished list of recipients, comprising some of the finest lawyers of the last 50 years, including Lewis Powell, Edward Bennett Williams, Guido Calabresi, William Brennan, H.L.A. Hart, Thurgood Marshall, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Richard Posner, Stephen Breyer, John Paul Stevens, Sandra Day O’Connor, and Elena Kagan.
Judge Millett was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals on December 10, 2013. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1985 and magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1988.
After working in a private law firm (Miller & Chevalier) for two years, Judge Millett clerked for Judge Thomas Tang of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. Following her clerkship, she worked for four years on the Appellate Staff of the Civil Division in the U.S. Department of Justice and for 11 years as an Assistant in the Office of the Solicitor General. In September 2007, she became a partner, leading the Supreme Court and appellate practices at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP. She has argued 32 cases before the U.S. Supreme Court and holds a second-degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do.
Judge Sutton assumed the position of Chief Judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit on May 1, 2021. He was nominated to the court by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in April 2003. He earned his law degree from The Ohio State University College of Law in 1990 and subsequently clerked for the Honorable Thomas Meskill of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, as well as two Supreme Court Justices, the Honorable Lewis F. Powell, Jr., and the Honorable Antonin Scalia.
Judge Sutton was in private practice in Columbus from 1992 to 1995 and 1998 to 2003, and he served as Solicitor General of Ohio from 1995 to 1998. He has also served as an adjunct professor of law at the Ohio State University College of Law and as a visiting lecturer at Harvard Law School.
As participants in the Law School’s Scalia-Ginsburg Collegiality Series, Judges Millett and Sutton shared remarks on their profession and collegiality in general.
Judge Millett emphasized that “our justice system is a precious resource,” not some freestanding legal apparatus.
“Justice is what the judges and the future lawyers that you are training do each day in each case,” Millett said. “So when your students feel cynical, please tell them that they must be the architects of the justice system that they want, and that their sacred and solemn duty as a lawyer, or as a judge, is to care about people who have problems, to shepherd them through the third branch of government, to treat them with dignity, and in so doing to build that trust.”
Judge Sutton shared stories about learning first-hand from Justices Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s famed friendship, despite their ideological differences.
“The best way to for me to capture collegiality is listen, and that is the heart of it, that you are going to respect someone; you’re going to listen to them, learn from them, and even if it all becomes ultimately selfish, makes your opinion better,” Sutton said. “It’s better to have a world in which we want to hear what the other side has to say, listen, try to answer the best we can, and move on and celebrate New Years together.”
Professor Evan Criddle, Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development, wrapped up the event by thanking the judges for all they do in service to the judicial system and William & Mary Law School.
“Over the years, both of you have participated in our annual Supreme Court Preview; you have each delivered Dunn Lectures, and Judge Millett once helped us celebrate Constitution Day,” Criddle said. “Now that you have received the Marshall-Wythe Medallion, I think we may now officially consider you honorary members of the William & Mary Community.”
The Marshall-Wythe Medallion is named for John Marshall and George Wythe. Marshall was among the first law students at William & Mary and had a seminal impact on American history as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. George Wythe, one of the leading statesmen of the Revolutionary Era, was William & Mary’s—and the nation’s—first professor of law.
Published on the William & Mary Law School website October 9, 2024.