Published on: Monday, July 19, 2021

The U.S. Senate Monday confirmed Tiffany P. Cunningham to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the nation’s top patent court (press release here). She will be the first Black judge on the court.

The Federal Circuit is the only federal appeals court to have never had a Black judge. Cunningham's appointment also creates an even six-to-six split between male and female judges on the bench.

Cunningham majored in chemical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before graduating from Harvard Law School and clerking for Federal Circuit Judge Timothy B. Dyk. She has spent most of her career representing major corporations in BigLaw.

Cunningham has represented both plaintiffs and defendants in a career that included trade secrets litigation and copyright counseling before focusing in the past decade on patent litigation, according to her Senate questionnaire.

All three of Biden's first appeals court appointees are Black women, underscoring the new administration's emphasis on diversity. He has another six nominees pending for the federal judiciary's 16 vacant circuit judgeships.