2018 Distinguished Jurist Award

Judge Montgomery was nominated to be a United States District Judge in November of

1995. Her nomination was confirmed by the United States Senate on August 2, 1996. She began

her duties as a District Court Judge on August 6, 1996.

Ann Montgomery received her undergraduate degree from Kansas University and her law

degree from the University of Minnesota. She served as a law clerk to the District of Columbia

Court of Appeals and was an Assistant United States Attorney in Minnesota from 1976 – 1983.

Judge Montgomery served on the Hennepin County State District Court bench from 1983

to 1994. While a state court judge, she served as a member of the Board of Judicial Standards. Ann

Montgomery was appointed to the position of Magistrate Judge by the Federal District Judges of the

District of Minnesota in 1994.

Judge Montgomery was a member of the United States Delegation to the 2001 Conference

on the 1980 Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction in the

Netherlands. In 2006 Judge Montgomery lectured on the Child Abduction Hague Convention in

Chile at the invitation of the United States State Department. In 2007 she was a lecturer and

instructor on Alternatives to Incarceration in Montevideo, Uruguay. In 2010 she taught trial skills

in Arusha, Tanzania to the attorneys at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. In 2012 she

lectured and participated as a member of the U.S. Delegation to an International Commercial

Arbitration Conference in Guangzhou and Beijing, China.

She is a past President of the Federal Bar Association of Minnesota. She has served as a

member of both the State of Minnesota and the Eighth Circuit Jury Instruction Committees.

Together with Judge Myron Bright and Professor Ronald Carlson, Judge Montgomery was a coauthor

of the Minnesota edition of Objections At Trial. She is a past President of the 8th Circuit

District Judges Association, a former member of the Judicial Resources Committee and a current

member of the Judicial Branch Committee of the Judicial Conference of the United States and Chair

of the Benchbook for U.S. District Court Judges Advisory Committee.

She is the recipient of the Hennepin County Bar Association 1993 Professionalism Award,

the American Board of Trial Advocates 1997 Trial Judge of the Year Award, the Minnesota Women

Lawyers 2000 Myra Bradwell Award, the 2006 Rosalie Wahl Award of Judicial Excellence, the

2016 Minnesota Hispanic Bar Association Manuel Guerrero Courage in Leadership Award and the

2017 Douglas K. Amdahl Public Attorney Career Achievement Award.