University Law School Lecturer Judge Amul Thapar has been nominated to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals by President Donald Trump. Thapar is currently a federal judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.
Thapar has co-taught a January Term course at the Law School with Law Prof. Emeritus Lillian R. BeVier for six years.
“As a colleague, he’s just wonderful,” BeVier said. “He is very warm, personally engaging, friendly, unpretentious. As a lawyer and a teacher, he’s just about one of the smartest people I’ve ever encountered … more importantly, he’s incredibly thoughtful.”
Thapar received his J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley before going on to clerk for Judge S. Arthur Spiegel on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio and Judge Nathaniel R. Jones of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Thapar then served as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of Ohio and the District of Columbia and later became the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Kentucky. He has also worked for private law firms, including Williams & Connolly in D.C. and Squire Sanders & Dempsey in Cincinnati.
Thapar became the first Article III judge of South Asian descent with his 2008 nomination by President George W. Bush. Article III judges include justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as judges on the federal courts of appeals and district courts.
BeVier described Thapar as “a respecter of following what the law requires.”
“One of the pleasures of teaching with him has been that it’s forced me to read some of his opinions on the district court, and they are a model of clarity and careful analysis and craftsmanship — so the law is in good hands with him,” BeVier said.
Law School Dean Risa L. Goluboff expressed her appreciation for what he has contributed to the community.
“Judge Thapar has been helping our students gain better insight into how judges reach their decisions since he began co-teaching a course on judicial philosophy here in 2012,” Goluboff said in an email to The Cavalier Daily. “Many of his students have gone on to clerk at the Supreme Court. We ... will welcome him back anytime he is ready to teach again.”
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