---
title: "Nancy Gbana Abudu | KnowJudges"
canonical: "https://knowjudges.com/kyj/judge/nancy-gbana-abudu"
page_type: "judge_profile"
updated: "2026-10-09"
---

# Nancy Gbana Abudu

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit · U.S. Circuit Judge

## Profile

- Court: U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
- State: National federal courts
- Role: U.S. Circuit Judge
- Service status: active
- Last verified: 2026-07-25

## Summary

Official statewide and applicable court procedural guidance applies to this judge.

## Biography

### Professional career

- American lawyer and United States circuit judge serving on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit since May 26, 2023
- Deputy legal director, Southern Poverty Law Center, Decatur, Georgia, 2019-2023; director of strategic litigation, 2021-2023
- Staff attorney, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, 2002-2004
- 1999–2001: Associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, New York City

### Education


### Additional information

- President Joe Biden nominated Abudu on January 3, 2023 to replace Beverly B. Martin, who took senior status.
- The Senate confirmed her on May 18, 2023, and she was commissioned on May 26, 2023.
- Legal director, American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, Miami, Florida, 2013-2018
- 2013–2018: Legal Director, ACLU of Florida.
- Voting Rights Project, American Civil Liberties Union, Atlanta, Georgia, 2005-2013; staff attorney, 2005-2009; senior staff counsel, 2009-2013
- 2005–2013: ACLU Voting Rights Project (Georgia), as staff attorney and senior staff counsel.
- Private practice, Atlanta, Georgia, 2005
- 2001: Legal Aid Society of New York (pro bono work).
- Private practice, New York City, 1999-2001
- She graduated from Mercersburg Academy in 1992, earned a B.A. from Columbia University in 1996, and a J.D. from Tulane University School of Law in 1999.
- Born 1974 in Alexandria, Virginia.
- Date of birth: 1974
- The first Black woman and first person of color from Georgia to serve on the Eleventh Circuit.
- Her work focused on voting rights, civil rights, and public interest law, with cases argued before multiple federal circuit courts and the U.S. Supreme Court.
- As Eleventh Circuit judge, Abudu presides over appeals in a jurisdiction covering Florida, Georgia, and Alabama, continuing her career-long focus on civil rights, voting rights, and constitutional law.
- Abudu is the daughter of Ghanaian immigrants and was influenced by her parents’ Pan-Africanist and anti-apartheid activism.
- At Tulane, she held the role of Managing Editor of the Tulane Environmental Law Journal and worked in the Environmental Law Clinic.
- Birth place: Alexandria

## Before you appear

- Read the judge-specific standing order first when one is listed.
- Check the docket and case orders for requirements that supersede broader guidance.
- Confirm current remote-access and courtroom technology arrangements before the proceeding.

## Courtroom Rules

### appellate oral argument

Scope: courtwide

In federal courts of appeals, oral argument is allowed unless a three-judge panel unanimously finds one of Rule 34's specified grounds for dispensing with it; the clerk provides the date, time, place, and time allocation.

Evidence excerpt: Oral argument must be allowed in every case unless a panel of three judges who have examined the briefs and record unanimously agrees that oral argument is unnecessary

[Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 34, Oral Argument](https://www.uscourts.gov/forms-rules/current-rules-practice-procedure/federal-rules-appellate-procedure)
Source checked: 2026-07-26


## Sources

- [Official profile](https://www.fjc.gov/node/13651551)
- [Official roster](https://www.fjc.gov/node/13651551)
- [Federal Judicial Center biography](https://www.fjc.gov/node/13651551)
- [Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 34, Oral Argument](https://www.uscourts.gov/forms-rules/current-rules-practice-procedure/federal-rules-appellate-procedure)
- [Judge Nancy Gbana Abudu](https://www.fjc.gov/node/13651551)
- [Wikidata: Nancy Abudu](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q110249897)

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