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Paula Xinis, District Judge

6500 Cherrywood Lane
Suite 255
Greenbelt, MD 20770
(301) 344-0653


Judge Paula Xinis was born in 1968 in Mineola, New York.  Judge Xinis attended Vassar College and the University of Virginia where she graduated with Highest Distinction in 1991 with a B.A. degree. Judge Xinis obtained her J.D. in 1997 from the Yale Law School.

Judge Xinis clerked from 1997 to 1998 for the Honorable Diana Gribbon Motz on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. She then joined the Office of the Federal Public Defender for the District of Maryland as an Assistant Federal Public Defender.  There, Judge Xinis served as the Research and Writing Attorney Supervisor from 2008 to 2011, and as the Director of Training from 2006 to 2011. Judge Xinis also served as faculty for national and regional training programs sponsored by the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, Defender Services Division Training Branch. Judge Xinis has lectured on such topics as Effective Sentencing Mitigation, Amendments to the United States Sentencing Guidelines, and Appellate Advocacy. Judge Xinis also taught Appellate Advocacy as an adjunct professor at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law in the spring of 2000.

In 2011, Judge Xinis joined the Baltimore firm of Murphy Falcon & Murphy as a Senior Trial attorney and became a partner in June of 2013. There, Judge Xinis handled complex civil actions as well as mass and class actions in state and federal court.

On March 26, 2015, President Barack Obama nominated Judge Xinis to serve as a United States District Judge.  The Senate confirmed Judge Xinis’s nomination on May 16, 2016.

Judge Xinis has served on the Board of Governors for the Federal Bar Association since 2005, and as Board Treasurer from 2011 through 2015. Judge Xinis previously served on the Merit Selection Committee for United States Magistrate Judges from 2003 to 2007. She has also served as a Complaint Examiner for the Office of Police Complaints for the District of Columbia from 2005 to 2011. Judge Xinis has been a permanent member of the Fourth Circuit Judicial Conference since 2009.  Judge Xinis currently serves as chair of the Court’s Disciplinary and Admissions Committee.