Beth Robinson
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Beth Robinson 

U.S. Court of Appeals Judge

b. March 6, 1965

 “… Robinson has been rightfully hailed as a tireless champion for equal rights and equal justice.” – Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont 

Beth Robinson is a groundbreaking litigator, marriage equality champion, and former associate justice on the Vermont Supreme Court. In 2021 she became the first openly lesbian U.S. Court of Appeals Judge. 

Born to American parents in Karachi, Pakistan, Robinson was raised in Indiana. She attended a Jesuit prep school in Indianapolis where she excelled in mathematics and oratory, graduating as a National Merit Scholar.

Robinson studied philosophy and government at Dartmouth College. She graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1986. She attended the University of Chicago Law School on a full merit scholarship and served as an associate editor of the Law Review. She received her Juris Doctor in 1989.

Robinson began her legal career clerking for a federal judge in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, followed by a year as an associate attorney at a D.C. law firm. She worked in private practice until 1993, when she accepted a position as an associate with the Vermont law firm Langrock, Sperry & Wool. The firm later made her a partner. 

For the next 18 years, until she became a judge, Robinson remained at Langrock. Her practice focused on family law, employment law, worker’s compensation, and personal injury. She also worked pro bono to advance LGBTQ rights, most notably same-sex marriage. In 1999 she served as co-counsel in the landmark case of Baker v. State. The Baker decision led Vermont to become the first state in the nation to recognize same-sex civil unions. Robinson also successfully litigated adoption and child custody cases involving the rights of transgender and nonbiological parents. Langrock received the American Bar Association’s Human Rights Hero award for Robinson’s trailblazing work.

During the 2000s, Robinson also worked as a senior lecturer at Dartmouth and a justice of the peace. She served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention supporting Hillary Clinton’s presidential bid and held several positions on the state’s Board of Bar Examiners, eventually becoming its chair. Later, she chaired Vermont Freedom to Marry, working with policymakers on passage of the state’s Marriage Equality Act in 2009. 

In 2010 Robinson assumed the role of counsel to Governor Peter Shumlin of Vermont. Gov. Shumlin nominated her to the Vermont Supreme Court, where she served for 10 years. In August 2021 President Biden nominated her to the U.S Court Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. After Senate confirmation, she became the first out lesbian to serve on a federal appeals court in America.

Robinson lives in Vermont with her wife, Kym Boyman.