# Wilhelmina Wright *American jurist; inactive senior United States district judge, District of Minnesota* Wilhelmina Marie Wright (born 1964) is an American lawyer and judge who holds inactive senior status on the [[United States District Court for the District of Minnesota]].[^1] Her cached biography credits her as the first jurist in [[Minnesota]] history to have sat at each of the three levels of the state judiciary: trial court, appellate court and supreme court.[^1] Two [[governor]]s placed her on the state bench. [[Jesse Ventura]] appointed her to the Ramsey County District Court in 2000 and to the [[Minnesota Court of Appeals]] in 2002, and [[Mark Dayton]] appointed her to the [[Minnesota Supreme Court]] in 2012.[^1] Her active service on the federal district court ran from 2016 to 2024. In 2022 she was elected to a six-year term on the Harvard Board of Overseers.[^1] ## Early life and education Wright was born in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1964, at a time when integration still met resistance. Her biography reports that her mother had to press for her to receive an equal education.[^1] She studied literature at Yale University and earned a Bachelor of Arts cum laude in 1986. Harvard Law School awarded her a Juris Doctor in 1989.[^1] ## Career ### Early legal career From 1989 to 1991, Wright clerked for Judge Damon Keith on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.[^1] Beginning in 1991, she practiced at Hogan & Hartson, LLP, in Washington, D.C., where she handled cases about opportunity in U.S. public schools.[^1] In 1995 she moved to the United States Attorney's Office in Minnesota. There she appeared as an assistant attorney before the U.S. District Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in cases involving illegal economic activity and violence.[^1] From 2000 to 2002, while a Ramsey County District Court judge, she took part in three bodies: the [[Minnesota State Bar Association]] Task Force on the American Bar Association Model Rules of Professional Conduct, the Minnesota Judicial Council, and the Minnesota Courts Public Trust and Confidence Work Group.[^1] ### Academic career Her biography reports that she taught on the rule of law for International Bridges to Justice in Geneva, Switzerland. She also taught judicial selection in Belgium and elsewhere in Switzerland.[^1] In the United States, she held a professorship at the University of St. Thomas School of Law and taught judicial accountability in other parts of the country.[^1] ### State judicial service Ventura named Wright to the Ramsey County District Court in 2000 and elevated her to the Minnesota Court of Appeals in 2002.[^1] Her appellate tenure ran from September 3, 2002, through September 26, 2012. From June 2011 to August 2012, she presided over the Special Redistricting Panel.[^1] On August 20, 2012, Dayton named her to the Minnesota Supreme Court.[^1] ### Federal judicial service Wright sat as an active judge of the federal district court in Minnesota from 2016 to 2024.[^1] As of the biography's retrieval in October 2026, she holds inactive senior status on that court.[^1] ## Awards Her biography lists several state honors:[^1] - the Ten Outstanding Young Minnesotans Award (2000); - the B. Warren Hart Award for Public Service from the Saint Paul Jaycees (2001); - the Lena O. Smith Achievement Award from the Black Women Lawyers Network (2004); - the Myra Bradwell Award from Minnesota Women Lawyers (2006). From the [[United States Department of Justice]], she received a Special Achievement Award in 1997 and the Director's Award for Public Service in 2000.[^1] She was admitted to the American Law Institute in 2008. In 2019, *Minnesota Lawyer* gave her a Diversity and Inclusion Award.[^1] ## Personal life Wright and her husband, Ecolab executive Dan Schmechel, have one daughter.[^1] Her bar memberships include the American Bar Association, the Minnesota State Bar Association, the Ramsey County Bar Association, the Minnesota Association of Black Lawyers and the National Association of Women Judges.[^1] Her biography also lists four board and council roles: the William Mitchell College of Law Board of Trustees, the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs Advisory Council, the Minnesota Lawyer Advisory Board and the Yale University Council.[^1] ## In the Minnesota record ### Who - Wilhelmina Marie Wright, a judge of the Ramsey County District Court, the Minnesota Court of Appeals and the Minnesota Supreme Court, and later of the federal district court for Minnesota.[^1] ### When - 2000: appointed to the Ramsey County District Court by Governor Ventura.[^1] - September 3, 2002 to September 26, 2012: served on the Minnesota Court of Appeals.[^1] - August 20, 2012: appointed to the Minnesota Supreme Court by Governor Dayton.[^1] - 2016 to 2024: active federal district judge.[^1] ### Where - Born in Norfolk, Virginia; served in Minnesota state courts and in the federal district court for Minnesota.[^1] ## Notes [^1]: Wikipedia contributors, *Wilhelmina Wright* (cached revision 1367752970, retrieved 2026-10-26) — Wright's birth, education, legal and judicial career, appointing governors and dates, awards and affiliations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelmina_Wright