Leonard Stark named federal magistrate judge

Leonard Stark, AS ’91, ’91M, has been selected to serve as U.S. magistrate judge in Delaware. Stark was recommended for the position by a court-appointed merit selection panel of 11 community leaders that included then-UD President David P. Roselle. He began serving on Aug. 6.

Magistrate judges are officers of a district court who conduct initial proceedings in felony cases, decide misdemeanor cases, conduct many pretrial civil and criminal matters and decide civil cases with the parties’ consent. Full-time magistrate judges serve eight-year terms and can be reappointed by their district court.

Stark was appointed an assistant U.S. attorney for the district of Delaware in 2002. Prior to that appointment, he worked as an associate with Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom in Wilmington. He is an adjunct professor at the University, is the immediate past president of the Alumni Association Board of Directors and is a member of its scholarship committee. He also serves as secretary of the Delaware Rhodes Scholarship selection committee.

Stark received a bachelor’s degree with honors in political science, a bachelor’s degree with distinction in economics with a minor in women’s studies and a master’s degree in European medieval and early modern history at UD, all in 1991. He became UD’s eighth Rhodes Scholar, earned his doctorate at Oxford University in England and received his law degree from the Yale Law School in 1996.