Paul Gerhart Hatfield (April 29, 1928 – July 3, 2000) was an American attorney, politician, and jurist. He served briefly as United States Senator from Montana in 1978, and then as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Montana.
Paul Gerhart Hatfield
Chief Judge — U.S. District Court for the District of Montana
Born 1928 in Great Falls, MT
Died 2000 in Great Falls, MT
FJC ID: 1000
Career output and lasting influence
Later decisions citing those opinions, per year · peak 14/year
Montana Supreme Court · 1977–1978Montana District Court · 1979–2000
Both charts share the same year axis. Opinion counts include only opinions in our corpus attributed to this judge so far — a year at zero can mean an attribution gap, not judicial silence. Influence typically outlasts the career: citations keep climbing after the last opinion.
- Gender
- Male
- Race
- White
Prior employment
- Montana Supreme CourtChief justice · 1977–1978
- U.S. senator from Montana1978
Judge · 1961–1976- Private practice, Great Falls, Montana1955–1960
- Great Falls, MontanaChief deputy city attorney · 1959–1960
Signal Corps, 181st Signal Depot CompanyU.S. Army · 1952–1953
Appointments
- 1979–2000 · Appointed by Jimmy Carter (Democratic)Term ended: Death
Education
- University of Great Fallsba
- University of Montana School of LawLL.B. · 1955