Stephanie Kulp Seymour

Professional career

• After law school, Seymour practiced law in Boston (1965–66), Tulsa, OK (1966–67), Houston, TX (1968–69), and Tulsa again (1971–79). In Houston, she was the first woman hired by Baker Botts.
• Professional Career: Private practice, Houston, Texas, 1968-1969
• Professional Career: Private practice, Boston, Massachusetts, 1965-1966
• Professional Career: American Bar Association Commission on Women in the Profession, Women Trailblazers in the Law Oral History Project, Radcliffe College, Schlesinger Library on the History of Women, 2005-2013.
• Professional Career: Member, Judicial Conference of the United States, 1994-2000
• Professional Career: Private practice, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1966-1967, 1971-1979
• Private practice, Tulsa, OK, 1971-1979
• Private practice, Houston, TX, 1968-1969
• Private practice, Tulsa, OK, 1966-1967
• Private practice, Boston, MA, 1965-1966

Judicial service

• Judge, Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, 1979-2005
• Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
• Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
• Senior Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit
• Retired from active duty: August 2025, after 46 years of service.
• She was the first female federal judge in Oklahoma and, in 2025, became the longest‑serving judge in Tenth Circuit history.
• Senior Status: October 16, 2005.
• Chief Judge: 1994–2000.
• Appointed: August 28, 1979, by President Jimmy Carter to a new seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit.
• Confirmed: October 31, 1979; commissioned November 2, 1979.
• Stephanie Kulp Seymour (born October 16, 1940) is a senior U.S. Circuit Judge of the Tenth Circuit, the first female federal judge in Oklahoma, and the longest‑serving judge in the court’s history.
• Her career spans over four decades of federal appellate service, including leadership as Chief Judge and a record‑setting tenure. She is remembered for breaking barriers for women in the federal judiciary and for her contributions to constitutional and procedural law.

Education

• Smith College · B.A., 1962
• Harvard University · J.D., 1965

Personal record

Born 1940 · Battle Creek, MI