Judge Patricia A. Gaughan, Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Ohio, announced that Judge Pamela A. Barker was sworn in today, to serve as a United States District Judge in Cleveland. Judge Barker was nominated by President Donald J. Trump to serve a life term. She replaces District Judge Donald C. Nugent, who assumed senior status in January 2017.

Judge Barker earned her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science, magna cum laude, from Kenyon College in 1979, where she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, and her Juris Doctor from the Ohio State University College of Law in 1982.

For the past seven years, Judge Barker served as a Judge in the General Division on the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas. For the eleven years preceding her election to the Court of Common Pleas, she served as a Mayor’s Court Magistrate and Juvenile Diversion Magistrate for the City of Brecksville, Ohio. Prior to ascending to the bench, Judge Barker spent 29 years representing individuals, small businesses, and corporations, with a particular emphasis on insurance litigation.

Judge Barker is a member of the Ohio State Bar Association, the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association - Women in the Law Section, the Westshore Bar Association and the William K. Thomas Inn of Court. Since 2012, she has served on the Ohio Common Pleas Judges’ Association, the Eighth District Judicial Conference where she served as Civil Chair in 2013, and the Ohio Judicial Conference.

The United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio has court locations in Cleveland, Akron, Toledo and Youngstown and serves 6 million citizens in the 40 northernmost counties in Ohio.