Frank DeArmon Whitney

Born in Charlotte, North Carolina, Whitney received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wake Forest University in 1982[1] where he was a member of the ROTC program and inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Society. He earned a joint Juris Doctor and Master of Business Administration degree from the University of North Carolina School of Law and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, respectively, in 1987. He entered private practice in Washington, D.C., in 1987. From 1988-89 he was a law clerk for Judge David B. Sentelle of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit before returning to private practice from 1989-90. He was an Assistant United States Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina from 1990-2001. He was in private practice in Charlotte from 2001 to 2002, and was then the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina from 2002-06.[2][3]

Whitney was nominated by President George W. Bush on February 14, 2006, to a seat on the United States District Court for the Western District of North Carolina vacated by Harold Brent McKnight. Whitney was confirmed by the United States Senate on June 22, 2006, and received his commission on July 5, 2006.[4] He served as Chief Judge from June 2, 2013 to June 2, 2020.

Whitney attended The JAG School at the University of Virginia. He served in the United States Army JAG Corps from 1982 to 2012. According to a JAG Corps historian, he is the first federal judge to serve as a military judge presiding over courts-martial in a combat theater.[1] He also presided over the last court martial in Iraq before the complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country.[5]

• Frank DeArmon Whitney at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
• Resume at the United States Department of Justice archive