Partner, McGuireWoods LLP
The Honorable Susan C. Rodriguez was sworn-in as a U.S. Magistrate Judge in the Western District of North Carolina on April 3, 2023. She was selected through a Merit Selection Panel, comprised of both attorneys throughout the district and community representatives. Judge Rodriguez was previously a partner at the law firm, McGuireWoods LLP, where she was the co-leader of the firm’s financial institutions industry team. Her private practice experience focused on government investigations and white-collar matters. She has represented clients in numerous government investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), among others. She was recognized for her outstanding work for clients through Chambers rankings in both 2022 and 2023 for Litigation: White-Collar Crime & Government Investigations in North Carolina and nationally for Fintech Legal: Corporate, Securities & Financing. Susan also was named to “North Carolina Rising Stars,” Government Relations, Super Lawyers, 2017-2019.
Before joining McGuireWoods in 2011, Susan served as a legal policy advisor at the Department of Homeland Security. Susan also served as federal law clerk for the Honorable Frank D. Whitney, U.S. District Court Judge for the Western District of North Carolina, handling both civil and criminal matters. Prior to that, she was a presidential appointee, serving as a staffer in the White House Counsel’s office from 2005-2006, handling management of judicial nominations and assisting with responses to congressional investigations.
Judge, United States District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina
University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music; B.S., Business Administration, Kansas University (1981); J.D., Notre Dame Law School (1984). Editor-in-Chief, Notre Dame Law Review. Law clerk, Honorable George E. MacKinnon, U.S Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Private practice of law for over 22 years with Am Law 100 firm, handling litigation and trials involving a variety of business and product liability matters, many in the capacity as national counsel in litigation pending in state and federal courts throughout the country.
Took oath of office as U.S. District Judge in 2008.
Member, American Law Institute. Senior Lecturing Fellow (periodically), Duke University Law School. Member, North Carolina Bar Association (former Vice President and co-chair of Bench/Bar Liaison Committee); Winston-Salem Downtown Rotary Club; Board of Directors, Chief Justice Joseph Branch American Inn of Court (President 2016-18); Board of Directors, Notre Dame Law Association (President 2021-23) .
Appointed by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. to serve on the Federal Rules of Evidence Advisory Committee of the United States Judicial Conference (2017-2023); chaired subcommittee on amendments to Rule 702.
Member, Federal Judicial Center and National Academies of Sciences’ Committee on Emerging Areas of Science, Engineering, and Medicine for the Courts: Identifying Chapters for a Fourth Edition of the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence – a Workshop (2020-21); Member, Committee on the Development of the Fourth Edition of the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence (current).
Judge, United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit
Amul R. Thapar serves as a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. His judicial career began in 2007 when President George W. Bush nominated him to serve on the Eastern District of Kentucky, making him the first South Asian Article III judge in American history. In 2017, he became President Donald J. Trump’s first appellate court nominee.
Before joining the bench, Judge Thapar served as the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky. While United States Attorney, Judge Thapar worked on the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee (“AGAC”) and chaired the AGAC’s Controlled Substances and Asset Forfeiture subcommittee. He also served on the Terrorism and National Security subcommittee, the Violent Crime subcommittee, and the Child Exploitation working group.
Judge Thapar has worked in private practice, at Williams & Connolly in Washington, D.C., and Squire, Sanders & Dempsey in Cincinnati, Ohio. He also served as an Assistant United States Attorney in both the Southern District of Ohio and the District of Columbia.
Judge Thapar received his undergraduate degree from Boston College and his law degree from the University of California, Berkeley. After graduating, Judge Thapar worked as a law clerk to the Honorable S. Arthur Spiegel of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, and the Honorable Nathaniel R. Jones of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Judge Thapar has also published in the Yale Law Journal, Michigan Law Review, and Catholic University Law Review. He teaches courses on originalism, the Federalists and Anti-Federalists, and legal writing at Notre Dame Law School, the University of Virginia School of Law, and Vanderbilt Law School.
Topics
A Brief Guide to the 2023 Amendments to the Federal Rules of Evidence
Amendments to Federal Rules of Evidence 702, 106, and 615 took effect on December 1,...
Lunch and Keynote Address
Raleigh, NC