Timothy K. Lewis

Timothy Kimbrue Lewis (born November 2, 1954) is a former United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. , he is an attorney at the law firm of Blank Rome LLP, where he serves as a mediator, arbitrator, settlement counselor, and trial and appellate practitioner. Lewis is African American.

Education and career

Lewis was born in Pittsburgh on November 2, 1954. He graduated from Tufts University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1976 and from Duquesne University School of Law with a Juris Doctor in 1980. He worked as an assistant district attorney for Allegheny County, Pennsylvania from 1980 to 1983, and as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania from 1983 to 1991. He is the great-great-great-grandson of Lewis Woodson, believed to be the grandson of Thomas Jefferson and his alleged mixed-race slave, Sally Hemings, with DNA evidence in 1998 suggesting this was true.

Federal judicial service

Lewis' judicial career began on April 25, 1991, when President George H. W. Bush nominated him to the bench of the United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, to fill the vacancy left by Paul A. Simmons. He was confirmed by the Senate on June 14, 1991, and received his commission on June 18, 1991. His service terminated on October 23, 1992, due to elevation to the court of appeals. On June 30, 1999, Lewis resigned his seat to return to private practice.

Lewis has formerly held several positions with the American Arbitration Association, including as a member of the Judicial Settlement Conference Service Panel, a member of the National Task Force on Issues Related to the Arbitration of Consumer Debt Issues, and as a board and executive committee member. At the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR), he served on the Task Force that created the Employment-Related Mass Claims Protocol for arbitrators and mediators, is co-chair of the Diversity in ADR Task Force, and is a former member of the board of directors. Lewis is a member of the American Law Institute, an honorary fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, a fellow of the College of Commercial Arbitrators, an active member of the Pennsylvania Interbranch Commission for Gender, Racial, and Ethnic Fairness, and serves on the Board of Advisors of the Georgetown Supreme Court Institute. He is a former member of the board of directors of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem.