The Hon.

Jerome

A.

Holmes

Since August 2006, Jerome A. Holmes has served as a Circuit Judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. He was nominated for this position by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the United States Senate. Judge Holmes assumed the position of Chief Circuit Judge of the Tenth Circuit in October 2022.  

         Judge Holmes received his law degree from Georgetown University Law Center, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of the Georgetown Immigration Law Journal.  He received a bachelor’s degree in History from Wake Forest University, graduating cum laude.  Judge Holmes also earned a (mid-career) master’s degree in Public Administration from Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government, where he was a John B. Pickett Fellow in Criminal Justice Policy and Management.

         Immediately after law school, Judge Holmes served as a judicial law clerk for two federal judges in Oklahoma City: U.S. District Judge Wayne E. Alley of the Western District of Oklahoma (1988 to 1990), and William J. Holloway, Jr. of the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals (1990 to 1991).  Thereafter, he practiced law, as a civil litigator, for approximately three years in a large Washington, D.C. law firm before returning to Oklahoma City in 1994.   

Starting in 1994, Judge Holmes served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Oklahoma.  He served in that position until 2005 (with a one-year leave of absence to pursue his master’s degree), focusing primarily on the investigation and prosecution of white-collar and public-corruption crimes. Judge Holmes held several leadership roles in the U.S. Attorney’s Office, including Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division, Legal Ethics Advisor (i.e., Professional Responsibility Advisory Officer), and Anti-Terrorism Coordinator. 

And for almost one year, starting in April 1995, Judge Holmes worked on the prosecution team for the Oklahoma City bombing. For his work on that team, in 2015, Judge Holmes became a co-recipient—along with former U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and other members of the prosecution team—of the Reflections of Hope Award, conferred by the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum.  During his time as a federal prosecutor, Judge Holmes also received numerous honors and awards from the Department of Justice, including the prestigious John Marshall Award from the U.S. Attorney General for Outstanding Legal Achievement, and the Director’s Award from the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys for Superior Performance.  From the summer of 2005 until his judicial appointment, in August 2006, Judge Holmes practiced law at one of Oklahoma’s largest law firms, focusing his practice on internal investigations and complex civil litigation.   

Prior to assuming his judicial position, Judge Holmes served for several years on the Rules of Professional Conduct Committee of the Oklahoma Bar Association (OBA), helping to consider revisions to legal-ethics rules, and subsequently on the OBA’s policymaking board, the Board of Governors, including a term as the OBA’s Vice-President.  He is an Emeritus Master and Past President of the William J. Holloway, Jr. American Inn of Court, and a former Commissioner of the Commission on Homelessness and Poverty of the American Bar Association (ABA).  Currently, Judge Holmes is a member of the American Law Institute and  serves on the Judicial Advisory Board of the American Society of International Law (ASIL); he is an ASIL member and a member of the ABA (including its International Law Section).  As Chief Judge, Judge Holmes also represents the Tenth Circuit on the federal judiciary’s governing body, the Judicial Conference of the United States.   

Furthermore, Judge Holmes has been an active and committed volunteer in his community.  He is Past President of the Downtown Rotary Club of Oklahoma City (then the largest Rotary Club in the world) and Past Chair of the Board of City Rescue Mission, a faith-based provider of shelter and rehabilitation services to the unhoused community.  He currently serves on the governing boards of several nonprofits, including the Oklahoma City Museum of Art, the Oklahoma City Philharmonic Society, the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation (where he Chairs the Conflict of Interest Committee), and the United Way of Central Oklahoma.