Bobby Shepherd

Shepherd received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia in 1973. He received his Juris Doctor from the University of Arkansas School of Law in Fayetteville in 1975.

Shepherd was a United States Magistrate Judge for the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas from 1993 until he joined the Eighth Circuit. His appointment was only the second time in history that a sitting magistrate judge has been elevated directly to a federal court of appeals. From 1991 to 1993, Shepherd was an Arkansas state trial judge. Previously, Shepherd had been in private practice as an attorney in Arkansas from 1976 to 1990.

Shepherd was nominated to the Eighth Circuit by President George W. Bush on May 18, 2006, to fill a seat to be vacated by Judge Morris S. Arnold. Shepherd was confirmed by the United States Senate by voice vote on July 20, 2006, even though Arnold was not set to retire for several months yet. Shepherd began hearing cases October 18, 2006 following Arnold's formal retirement. Arnold still judges cases for the court on senior status. Shepherd was Bush's seventh appointment to the Eighth Circuit.

United States v. Neil Scott Kramer

• Bobby Shepherd at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.