William Kenneth Sessions III (born February 9, 1947) is serving as a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Vermont and has served as the Vice Chair and eventually as Chair of the United States Sentencing Commission. He was confirmed on October 21, 2009, as Chair of the United States Sentencing Commission, and served until December 22, 2010.
William K. Sessions III
Chief Judge — U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont
Born 1947 in Hartford, CT
FJC ID: 2145
Career output and lasting influence
Opinions attributed per year · peak 26/year
Later decisions citing those opinions, per year · peak 48/year
Vermont District Court · 1995–2014
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
- U.S. Sentencing Commission1999–2010
- ↳vice chair · 1999–2009
- ↳chair · 2009–2010
- Judicial Conference of the United StatesMember · 2007–2010
- Private practice, Middlebury, Vermont1978–1995
Adjunct professor · 1978–1995- Leahy for U.S. SenateCampaign manager · 1992
Public defender · 1974–1978
U.S. Army first lieutenant1972–1977- ↳active service · 1972–1973
![Addison County [Vermont] District Court](/images-webp/courts/vermont-district-court-logo.webp)
Law clerk , Hon. Hilton Dier · 1973
Appointments
- 1995–2014 · Appointed by William J. Clinton (Democratic)
Education
J.D. · 1972- Middlebury CollegeB.A. · 1969