Jane Branstetter Stranch, Class of 1978, has been approved by the United States Senate for a seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Her confirmation fills the position created when Judge Martha Craig Daughtrey, Class of 1968, assumed senior status on January 1, 2009.
She will be sworn in and take her seat on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals on November 8.
Stranch is currently a managing member at Branstetter Stranch & Jennings in Nashville. Over the course of her 30-year career, she has developed a national practice in labor and employment law, specializing in complex ERISA litigation.
She was nominated for the seat by President Barack Obama in August 2009. In announcing her nomination, the White House cited Stranch’s deep understanding of ERISA, one of the most complex and rapidly changing areas of federal law.
Stranch went before the Senate Judiciary Committee in October 2009, and her nomination to the Sixth Circuit Court was approved by that committee in November. Tennessee Senators Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker supported Stranch throughout the confirmation process.
Stranch will join two other Tennesseans, both from Memphis, who serve as active judges, as well as Judge Gilbert S. Merritt Jr., Class of 1960, and Judge Daughtrey, both of whom have assumed senior status.
Stranch has practiced at Branstetter, Stranch & Jennings – a firm founded by her father, Cecil D. Branstetter Sr., Class of 1949, in 1952 – throughout her legal career. A Nashville native, she is a frequent speaker at seminars and special events. She has taught labor law at Belmont University and has served on the AFL-CIO Lawyers Coordinating Committee.
She is a summa cum laude graduate of Vanderbilt University and was elected to the Order of the Coif after earning her J.D. at Vanderbilt Law School. She is a member of the Nashville, Tennessee and American Bar Associations, the Lawyers’ Association for Women, and a Fellow of the Nashville and Tennessee Bar Foundation.
Related articles: The Tennessean, Nashville Post