September 23, 2014
Region’s new federal judge to lecture at law school
CARBONDALE, Ill. -- U.S. District Judge Staci M. Yandle will deliver a lecture next week at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.
Yandle will present her lecture at 7 p.m., Monday, Sept. 29, in the SIU School of Law Hiram H. Lesar Building Auditorium. The event is free and the public is invited to attend. A reception in the law school’s formal lounge begins at 6 p.m.
“We are excited to be working with the law school to host Judge Yandle in her first appearance as a jurist on the SIU campus,” David Yepsen, Paul Simon Public Policy Institute director, said. “This will be an opportunity for students and other to hear about her journey to the bench. It’s important students hear from successful people in public service about how they did it and what students should be doing now to shape their own careers.”
President Obama in January nominated Yandle to serve on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois and she received U.S. Senate confirmation in June. Yandle was appointed to the bench in August and she presides in the U.S. District Court in Benton. Yandle is only the second woman and first African-American judge to serve in the Southern District of Illinois, which is comprised of 38 southernmost counties in the state.
Yandle worked in private practice for 20 years before becoming a solo practitioner in 2007. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1983 and her law degree from Vanderbilt University School of Law in 1987.
A former president of the Metro East Bar Association, Yandle served on the Illinois Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights from 1992 to 1996, and by appointment to the Illinois Gaming Board from 1999 to 2001.