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Catherine Eagles
Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina
Incumbent
Assumed office August 13, 2023
Preceded by	Thomas D. Schroeder
Judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina
Incumbent
Assumed office December 22, 2010
Appointed by	Barack Obama
Preceded by	Norwood Carlton Tilley Jr.
Personal details
Born	Catherine Diane Caldwell (1958-08-30) August 30, 1958 (age 66) Memphis, Tennessee, U.S.
Education	Rhodes College (BA) George Washington University (JD)

Catherine Diane Caldwell Eagles (born August 30, 1958) is the chief United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina and a former Superior Court judge in Guilford County, North Carolina. She is the first female judge to serve in the Middle District.

Early life and education

Eagles was born Catherine Diane Caldwell in Memphis, Tennessee in 1958. She graduated from Rhodes College (then called Southwestern at Memphis) in 1979 with a Bachelor of Arts degree. In 1982, she earned a Juris Doctor from George Washington University Law School.

Career

After law school, Eagles served as a staff law clerk for the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and as a clerk to Judge J. Smith Henley. After her clerkship, Eagles worked from 1984 to 1993 as an associate and partner at Smith, Helms, Mullis & Moore in Greensboro, North Carolina. In 1993 she was appointed to a seat as a resident superior court judge based in Greensboro. She was elected to serve the remainder of the term in 1994 and re-elected in 1996 and 2004 to eight-year terms. In 2006 she became the senior resident superior court judge in Guilford County.

Federal judicial service

On March 10, 2010, President Barack Obama nominated Eagles to a seat in the Middle District of North Carolina that came open when Norwood Carlton Tilley Jr. assumed senior status. Eagles had a hearing in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on April 16, 2010, and her nomination was reported to the full Senate on May 6, 2010. The Senate approved her nomination on December 16, 2010, during the lame duck session of the 111th Congress. She received her commission on December 22, 2010. She became chief judge on August 13, 2023.

Notable cases

In 2012, she presided over U.S. v. Johnny Reid Edwards, where former presidential candidate and senator John Edwards was charged with campaign finance violations.

See also

• List of first women lawyers and judges in North Carolina

References

1. Making History: President Obama’s Female Judicial Nominees Archived 2018-09-28 at the Wayback Machine, Alliance for Justice (June 11, 2013).
2. ^ Catherine Eagles at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
3. ^ Superior Court Judges for District 18: Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Catherine C. Eagles Archived 2010-03-25 at the Wayback Machine, The North Carolina Court System.
4. Abby Phillip, Senate confirms judicial nominees, Politico (December 16, 2010).
5. Doug Clark, Eagles finally gets through the Senate Archived 2012-09-04 at archive.today, News & Record, "Off the Record" blog (December 16, 2010).

External links

• Catherine Eagles at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
• Catherine Eagles at Ballotpedia

• 1958 births
• Living people
• 20th-century American judges
• 20th-century American women judges
• 20th-century American lawyers
• 20th-century American women lawyers
• 21st-century American judges
• 21st-century American women judges
• Rhodes College alumni
• George Washington University Law School alumni
• North Carolina state court judges
• Judges of the United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina
• United States district court judges appointed by Barack Obama
• Lawyers from Memphis, Tennessee
• North Carolina lawyers