Carney appoints Black woman to New Castle Superior Court

 

Gov. John Carney will nominate a black lawyer to the Superior Court in New Castle County, one day after the first Black woman was confirmed for the U.S. Supreme Court.

Patricia A. Winston, a partner at Morris James in Wilmington since 2017, focused on a range of corporate and commercial issues.

The Delaware Senate is expected to consider her nomination next month.

“Patricia has the experience and good judgment necessary to serve on the Superior Court,” Carney said in a press release. “I know she will serve our state well and look forward to the Senate considering her nomination.”

Winston has litigated breach of contract cases, fraud disputes, stockholder litigation and business dissolutions. A University of Delaware graduate, she earned her Juris Doctor degree  from Widener University School of Law, now the Delaware Law School, in 2008. She has worked at Morris James since 2008.

Her bio on the Morris James site says she’s argued cases in the Delaware Court of Chancery, the Delaware Superior Court’s Complex Commercial Litigation Division, and the Delaware District Court.

It also said she is the past chair of the Delaware State Bar Association’s Litigation Section, and has held various offices in the DSBA’s Multicultural Judges and Lawyers’ Section.

She is on the executive committee of the National Bar Association’s Commercial Law Section and chair of the Continuing Legal Education Planning Committee for the Commercial Law Section’s Annual Corporate Counsel Conference. As chair, Winston and her committee are in charge of CLE programming for the annual Corporate Counsel Conference.

Winston also is a former executive board member of the Wilmington Chapter of The Links Inc., a service organization dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for the residents in the Wilmington community.

Her nomination for the court came a day after Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson became the first ever Black woman confirmed to serve on the Supreme Court.

Chris Coffey, campaign manager for Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware, seized on the opportunity to once again call on Carney to nominate a Black candidate for the vacant seat on theChancery Court.