Victoria A. Roberts

The Honorable Victoria S. Roberts served as a judge on the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan from 1998 until her retirement in 2023. President Bill Clinton appointed her to the bench and the Senate confirmed her unanimously. While on the bench, Judge Roberts presided over thousands of cases and hundreds of trials and hearings on nearly every subject and cause of action within the jurisdiction of federal trial courts, including several notable challenges to presidential action. During her time on the federal bench, she was also a moving force to create a pro se prisoner mediation program and a pro se clinic.

Before her judicial service, Judge Roberts represented the United States as an Assistant U.S. Attorney. She also served as counsel for the state of Michigan, the Detroit Building Authority, the Economic Corporation for the City of Detroit, the American Motors Company, and individual plaintiffs and defendants in private industry. Throughout her legal career Judger Roberts blazed a trail for native Detroiters, women, African Americans, lawyers, judges, and members of the public at large. She pioneered new initiatives in the federal courts and her community and also taught at the University of Michigan Law School.

A native of Detroit, Michigan, Judge Roberts received her BA from the University of Michigan and her law degree from Northeastern University School of Law. She is the recipient of many awards, including a Legacy Award of the American Civil Liberties Association, the Lifetime Judicial Achievement Award from the American Board of Trial Advocates, and the Dennis W. Archer Public Service Award from the Detroit Metropolitan Bar Association Foundation. A scholarship has also been established in her name by the Wolverine Bar Association, a Michigan branch of the National Bar Association.

Currently Judge Roberts works as a mediator, arbitrator, and neutral evaluator with JAMS, handling cases and appointments in a wide range of legal matters. She brings to that task her wide and varied judicial and legal experience, along with her recognition of the human element in legal disputes and her commitment to fair and even-handed justice.