Judge McKeown was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 1998. Before her appointment, Judge McKeown practiced law at Perkins Coie in Seattle and Washington, D.C., where she specialized in antitrust and intellectual property and was the firm’s first woman partner. Judge McKeown is past President of the Federal Judges Association and previously chaired the US Judicial Conference Codes of Conduct Committee on ethics. She chairs the Ninth Circuit Workplace Environment Committee and was appointed by Chief Justice Roberts to the National Workplace Conduct Working Group. She is on the board of the International Association of Women Lawyers, the editorial board of Litigation magazine, and a member of the Council of the American Law Institute and the Judicial Advisory Board of the American Society of International Law. She is immediate past chair of the ABA Rule of Law Initiative and a current advisor. She lectured throughout the world on intellectual property, international law, human rights law, litigation, ethics, judicial administration, and constitutional law and participated in rule of law initiatives with judges and lawyers. She is published on topics ranging from intellectual property to judicial history, rule of law, immigration, and ethics.


Judge McKeown will speak at the World Justice Forum's Ruth Bader Ginsburg Legacy Keynote Conversation with Sherrilyn Ifill