WASHINGTON — President Bush has nominated a former legal counsel to former Tennessee Gov. Lamar Alexander to serve on the 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Cincinnati.

               Mr. Bush tapped Julia Smith Gibbons, now a federal judge for the Western District of Tennessee, for the Circuit Court that reviews appeals from federal district courts in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Ten nessee. The appellate court also takes cases from the U.S. Tax Court and federal administrative agencies.

        If the Senate confirms her, Judge Gibbons will return to the legal arena where she got her start in 1975 as a law clerk after passing the Tennessee Bar. From 1979-81, Judge Gibbons was deputy counsel and legal adviser to Mr. Alexander. She served as a Tennessee judge for the 15th Circuit from 1981-83 before taking on her current assignment.

        “She is outstanding as a trial judge,” said Leo Bearman Jr., a longtime Memphis, Tenn., trial lawyer with the firm of Baker Donelson Bearman & Caldwell.

        “She's highly intelligent, very pleasant to try a case before. She'll be an outstanding appellate judge.”
       

Vanderbilt studies
               A native of Pulaski, Tenn., Judge Gibbons, 50, earned her undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University. She received a degree from the University of Virginia School of Law. She also attended the Vanderbilt University School of Law.

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