Amy Totenberg

From left, Jill, Nina, and Amy Totenberg celebrate the return of their father’s Stradivarius violin in 2015.

Amy Totenberg was born in New York, the daughter of violinist Roman Totenberg,[1] who was born in Poland, and Melanie (Shroder) Totenberg, who was a real estate broker. Her eldest sister, Nina Totenberg, is a Supreme Court correspondent for NPR.[2] Another sister, Jill Totenberg, is a businesswoman married to Brian Foreman.[3]

Totenberg earned an Artium Baccalaureus, magna cum laude, in 1974 from Harvard-Radcliffe College and a Juris Doctor in 1977 from Harvard Law School.[4][5]

Upon graduating from Harvard-Radcliffe, Totenberg worked as a summer intern at the law firm of James M. Haviland in Charleston, West Virginia. In 1975 she was a legal assistant for Education/Instrucción in Roxbury, Massachusetts and held this position into 1977.[6] After graduating from law school, she served as a partner for The Law Project in Atlanta from 1977 until 1982 and served as a sole legal practitioner in Atlanta from 1982 until 1994. Between 1988 and 1993, Totenberg worked part-time for the city of Atlanta as a pro hac vice Municipal Court Judge.[6] From 1994 until 1998, Totenberg served as the first-ever general counsel for Atlanta's school system.[4] From 1998 until becoming a federal judge in 2011, Totenberg had served as a sole legal practitioner and arbitrator in Atlanta, working part-time as a special master and court monitor for several United States district courts.[4] She also worked from 2004 until 2007 as an adjunct professor at the Emory University School of Law.[6][5]

In February 2009, Totenberg submitted a resume and letter of interest for a United States district judgeship vacancy. After an interview by a committee appointed by the Georgia Democratic Congressional delegation, Totenberg was among the applicants whose names were submitted to the White House. On March 17, 2010, President Barack Obama nominated Totenberg to fill the judicial vacancy on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia that had been created by the decision by Judge Jack Tarpley Camp Jr. to assume senior status at the end of 2008.[4] Totenberg was unanimously approved on December 1, 2010 by the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary with a voice vote.[7][8] Senators returned Totenberg's nomination to President Obama at the end of the 111th Congress, however, and he resubmitted the nomination on January 5, 2011. The Senate confirmed Totenberg in a voice vote on February 28, 2011. She received her commission March 1, 2011.[5]

• Amy Totenberg at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
• Amy Totenberg at Ballotpedia