Judge Martha Craig Daughtrey, ’68, a member of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, will take senior judge status on Jan. 1. Judge Daughtrey has been honored for her career contributions to the legal profession by the Nashville Bar Association with its highest and most prestigious award, the John C. Tune Award, which recognizes members who make outstanding contributions to the greater Nashville community while distinguishing themselves as practicing attorneys.
The Sixth Circuit is a 16-member judicial panel based in Cincinnati that covers the states of Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee in the federal appellate process.
Judge Daughtrey was nominated to the court by then-President Bill Clinton on Aug. 6, 1993, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate that November. She began serving on the panel Dec. 6 of that year.
In 1972, Judge Daughtrey was the first woman appointed to the faculty of Vanderbilt Law School, where she served as an assistant professor from 1972 until 1975, when she was appointed to a judgeship on the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals.
Judge Daughtrey served there until 1990, when she was appointed an associate justice on the Tennessee Supreme Court. She was the first woman to serve on both the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals and the Tennessee Supreme Court.