Carolyn Kuhl

Carolyn Barbara Kuhl (born 1952) is a judge on the Superior Court of California for the County of Los Angeles and a former nominee to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She was born in St. Louis, Missouri.

Background

In 1974, Judge Kuhl received a bachelor's degree in Chemistry from Princeton University with honors. Judge Kuhl was in the second class of women ever to graduate from Princeton. She graduated with honors from Duke Law School in 1977 where she was a member of the Order of the Coif and an editor of the Duke Law Journal.

From 1977 to 1978, Kuhl clerked for future Supreme Court Justice, Anthony M. Kennedy, when he was an appellate judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

From 1981 to 1986, she served in the United States Department of Justice. She served as Deputy Solicitor General, Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Division, and as Special Assistant to Attorney General William French Smith.

As Deputy Solicitor General of the United States, she argued cases before the United States Supreme Court and supervised the work of the other attorneys in the office. As Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Division, Judge Kuhl supervised all civil appellate litigation handled by the Justice Department nationwide. She also supervised civil trial litigation involving federal agency programs—in particular, important cases raising critical constitutional or statutory issues.