Ivan Lemelle has been selected to receive the prestigious 2026 American Inns of Court A. Sherman Christensen Award, which recognizes an Inn member who has provided distinguished, exceptional, and significant leadership to the American Inns of Court movement at the local, state, or national level. Lemelle, a senior judge in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, will receive the award at the American Inns of Court 2026 Celebration of Excellence at the Supreme Court of the United States.

“Over his past 40 years on the federal bench, Judge Lemelle has worked both inside and outside the courtroom to promote access to justice and to uphold the rule of law,” writes Judge Dana M. Douglas of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, who nominated Lemelle for the award. “As a former clerk, protégé, and friend, I have had the honor of witnessing first-hand his approach to each case not as an academic exercise but with the full understanding that each case impacts real families, individuals, and the constitutional liberties of those who appear before the court.”

Nominated by President William J. Clinton in 1997, Lemelle became a U.S. district judge for the Eastern District of Louisiana in 1998. He achieved senior judge status in 2015. From 1984 to 1998, he served as a U.S. magistrate judge for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana.

Before his federal judicial service, Lemelle was an assistant attorney general for the state of Louisiana and an assistant city attorney for New Orleans. He was in private practice from 1974 to 1984. At the beginning of his career, he was an assistant district attorney for Orleans Parish, Louisiana, and a law clerk for Judge Robert Collins of the Orleans Parish Criminal District Court.

Lemelle has also been deeply involved in the American Inns of Court movement, serving as a member of the board of trustees and editorial board member of The Bencher among other national-level roles over the last 25 years. He is a past president of the St. Thomas More American Inn of Court and currently serves as a member of the Inn’s executive committee. He also has served as a volunteer with Habitat for Humanity, Ozanam Inn, and serving on the board of Reconcile New Orleans, a nonprofit focused on addressing generational poverty, violence, and neglect in the New Orleans area.

The American Inns of Court, headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, inspires the legal community to advance the rule of law by achieving the highest level of professionalism through example, education, and mentoring. The organization’s membership includes nearly 30,000 federal, state, and local judges; lawyers; law professors; and law students in more than 360 chapters nationwide. More information is available at www.innsofcourt.org.

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