Hon. Wendy B. Vitter, Chief U.S. District Judge, USDC-EDLA

Wendy Vitter was sworn in as a United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana on May 30, 2019, and assumed the role of Chief Judge in May 2025.  Immediately prior to her appointment to the Bench, Judge Vitter was General Counsel for the Archdiocese of New Orleans, the first General Counsel in the history of the Archdiocese.  In that role, she provided counsel to the Archdiocese as well as various associated entities such as Catholic Charities, Second Harvest Food Bank, the Clarion Herald, Notre Dame Seminary, and over 100 elementary and high schools.  Judge Vitter previously worked as an associate at Abbott & Meeks Law Firm which specialized in Maritime litigation. Prior to that role, she served as an Assistant District Attorney in New Orleans, trying over 100 jury trials with a specialty in homicide prosecutions. At the time she left the Orleans Parish District Attorney’s Office, she was Chief of the Trials Division, overseeing the trial attorneys in ten sections of Criminal District Court. Judge Vitter received her BA degree from Sam Houston State University, earning her degree in 3 ½ years and Law Degree from Tulane University Law School. Most significantly, she and her husband David became grandparents of precious twin boys last year. She is considering her grandmother name to be “Your Honor.”

Hon. Jane Triche Milazzo, U.S. District Judge, USDC-EDLA

Judge Jane Milazzo was sworn in as a United State District Court Judge on October 12, 2011.  

Judge Milazzo graduated from LSU Law School in 1992 and immediately went into practice with her family at the Law Offices of Risley Triche, LLC, where she engaged in a general civil practice. In 2008, Judge Milazzo was elected to the 23rd Judicial District Court.

During her years in private practice and in the state and federal judiciary, Judge Milazzo served as president of both the Assumption Parish Bar Association and the Twenty-Third Judicial District Bar Association.  She was a member of the Louisiana State Bar Association House of Delegates where she served as chair of the legislative committee.  As a state district court judge, she served on the executive committee of the District Judges Association. 

Judge Milazzo regularly speaks to lawyers on issues of professionalism, advocacy, and complex litigation.  She currently presides over the multidistrict litigation, In Re: Taxotere (Docetaxel) Products Liability Litigation.

Judge Milazzo is the President of the Federal Bar Association. She is married to her husband, John.  They have six children and five grandchildren.

Hon. Karen Wells Roby, U.S. Magistrate Judge, USDC-EDLA

Magistrate Judge Karen Wells Roby is a United States Magistrate Judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana with twenty-nine (29) years of service. Formerly, she served as the Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge from 2017- 2021. She has been active in the American Bar Association serving in various leadership roles and was responsible for the success of the (3) three-day gathering of diverse leaders who trained future leaders in the areas of marketing, branding, and networking; Diverse Leaders Academy and the Professional Success Summit "PSS". 

Additionally, Judge Roby in 2012 served as the President of the Federal Magistrate Judges Association (“FMJA”), a national organization of over 600 U.S. Magistrate Judges across the country. As President of the Association, she worked to secure pay raises for all active and recently retired federal magistrate judges. She is a graduate of Tulane Law School and Xavier University. She is a 2023 graduate of Duke Law School where she received her LLM in Judicial Studies.

Judge Roby, an alumnus of Tulane Law School,  serves as an advisor to the Dean of Tulane Law School as a member of the Dean's Advisory Board. She served as an Adjunct Professor at Tulane with 11 years of service and teaches a course on E-Discovery and Digital Evidence. Judge Roby joined other notables at the Georgetown Advanced E-Discovery Institute where she did an eDTalk on Diversity on the E-Team highlighting the importance of diversity in E-Discovery.

Judge Roby is a frequent speaker and thought leader in e-Discovery. She chaired the Tulane Law School’s Black Alumni Reunion held in February 2019 and Judge Roby also was the visionary for the Tulane’s BLA Newsletter, which was first launched after the reunion and now issues quarterly.

Her commitment to the community is unsurpassed. She was integral in saving her high school, has served as the coordinating judge over the LSBA Suit Up program in New Orleans for the last (15) fifteen years.