Hon. Jerry Blackwell

Federal Judicial Service:
Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota
Nominated by Joseph R. Biden on June 15, 2022, to a seat vacated by Susan Richard Nelson. Confirmed by the Senate on December 7, 2022, and received commission on December 20, 2022.

Education:
University of North Carolina, B.A., 1984
University of North Carolina School of Law, J.D., 1987

Professional Career:
Private practice, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1987-2022

From 1987 to 2022, Blackwell was a lawyer in private practice. He worked as a partner at Robins Kaplan LLP in Minneapolis from 1987 to 1996 and Nilan Johnson Lewis from 1996 to 2000. From 2000 to 2006, he was a partner at Blackwell Igbanugo in Edina, Minnesota, one of the nation’s largest Black-owned law firms before it was dissolved. In 2006, he co-founded the law firm Blackwell Burke in Minneapolis.

During his career, Blackwell represented Prince.

In 2020, Blackwell obtained a posthumous pardon of Max Mason, a Black man falsely convicted in Duluth, Minnesota, of raping a white woman in 1920.

Blackwell was a special assistant state attorney general for the prosecution during the trial of Derek Chauvin, the Minneapolis police officer who murdered George Floyd.