The Benchers Society Dinner

The Benchers Society Dinner:
Friday, November 6, 2009

Presentation of the
Wisconsin Law Alumni Association
Distinguished Service Award to

Honorable Barbara B. Crabb

Friday November 6, 2009
Cocktails at 6:00 - 7:00 p.m.
Dinner at 7:00 p.m.

Quarles And Brady Reading Room
University of Wisconsin Law School
975 Bascom Mall
Madison, WI 53706

$60/person.
Advanced registration required at
www.wisconsinlawalumni.com

Honorable Barbara B. Crabb
Class of 1962

     Chief Judge Crabb first served the federal judiciary as a magistrate judge for the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin.  She was appointed as a district judge in November 1979 by President Jimmy Carter, serving as the court’s chief from 1980 to 1996, then again from 2001 to present.

     Chief Judge Crabb was born in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and received her undergraduate and J.D. degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, both with honors.  There, she was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta, Phi Beta Kappa, Mortar Board, and Order of the Coif.  Since gradation, she has received from the University an honorary degree and its Distinguished Alumnus Award.

     Previous to her service on the bench, Chief Judge Crabb was in private law practice with the Madison, Wisconsin, law firm of Roberts, Boardman, Suhr, & Curry.  She also worked as a research assistant on the American Bar Association’s project on Minimum Standards for Criminal Justice:  The Police Function, and also for the University of Wisconsin Law School, her alma mater.

     Chief Judge Crabb has been involved in a multitude of professional activities, including co-chairing the American Bar Association Joint Committee on Judicial Discipline Procedures and the Seventh Circuit Judicial Council Committee on Gender Bias.  She has served on the three-judge international team teaching Principles of Judicial Independence to judges in Shanghai, served as president of the James E. Doyle Inn of Court, served on the Chief Justice’s Committee to Study the Judicial Conference, and chaired the Seventh Circuit Council Automation Committee.

     Chief Judge Crabb resides in Madison with her husband, Ted.  They have two children, Julia and Philip.