Susan D. Wigenton

Class of 1987 · Newark, NJ

U.S. Magistrate Judge, District of New Jersey

Judge Wigenton graduated from Norfolk State University with a bachelor’s degree in political science. After earning her J.D., she served as a judicial clerk for Judge Lawrence M. Lawson, the assignment judge for Monmouth County, NJ, Superior Court. Following her clerkship she served as the public defender for the City of Asbury Park, practiced at the firm of Giordano, Halleran & Ciesla in Middletown, NJ, where she was a partner, and graded bar exams for more than eight years for the State of New Jersey Board of Bar Examiners.

Prior to her full-time appointment to the bench as a U.S. magistrate judge for the District of New Jersey, she was a trial attorney engaged in private practice in her own firm and served as a part-time U.S. magistrate judge. In January 2006 Judge Wigenton was nominated by President Bush to serve as a U.S. district judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. She was confirmed by the Senate to that lifetime position in May 2006, and officially appointed by President Bush on June 12, 2006.

Judge Wigenton has received numerous awards and citations, including the Association of Black Women Lawyers of New Jersey Distinguished Member of the Legal Community Award; the W.E.B. DuBois Citation for Merit; and the National Association for Educational Opportunity Distinguished Alumni Award. She is also a member of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority. Judge Wigenton is a very active member of her church, St. Paul Baptist in Atlantic Highlands, NJ, where she serves as the chair of the Board of Trustees, and her father, Dr. Henry P. Davis, Jr., serves as pastor.

I found the faculty at William & Mary to be very knowledgeable, but, most importantly, accessible. They genuinely cared about the success of the students.