United States Magistrate Judge Mona Majzoub plans to step down on January 5 after serving 16 years on the federal bench in Detroit.
Majzoub said she plans to open a mediation practice that will give her more control over her schedule and permit her to devote more time to her family.
“I will be forever grateful for my appointment to this bench and the opportunity to serve both the public and the Court,” Majzoub said in announcing her retirement. “The last 16 years have proven to be an invaluable career experience and one that I will cherish always and reflect upon often.”
“As a result of the relationships I have forged during my tenure here, and the challenges of my professional duties and responsibilities, I have grown personally and professionally in ways that I could not have anticipated,” she added.
Majzoub is one of seven federal magistrate judges in the Eastern District of Michigan. Magistrate judges handle arraignments, detention and bond decisions, other preliminary criminal matters and preside over discovery and pre-trial civil proceedings at the request of federal district judges. They also preside over citizenship ceremonies, misdemeanor trials, and, with the consent of the parties, over civil cases.
A search for Majzoub’s replacement is underway.
“Judge Majzoub has served this Court with dedication and distinction over the past 16 years, and really embodies everything a good judge should be,” said Executive Magistrate Judge R. Steven Whalen. “She’ll be a tough act to follow.”
Majzoub was born in Memphis, Tenn., the oldest of three children. Her father, a prominent surgeon, immigrated to the United States from Lebanon in 1948 as a third-year medical student. Her mother, who was born in the U.S. to Lebanese parents, was an executive assistant at the Ford Motor Company and a homemaker.
Majzoub grew up in Dearborn and attended public schools there until the sixth grade when she was admitted to the Kingswood School at Cranbrook in Bloomfield Hills. Students elected her class president for four consecutive years through her senior year.
After graduating in 1967, she enrolled at the University of Michigan, and obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in literature in 1970. In 1971-72, she attended American University of Beirut in Lebanon, where she studied philosophy, Middle Eastern history and the Arabic language to augment her Master of Arts degree, which she received from the U-M in 1972. She received her law degree in 1976 from the University of Detroit Mercy.
In 1977, she joined the Detroit law firm of Kitch and Suhrheinrich, PC (now Kitch Drutchas Wagner Valitutti & Sherbrook), and represented corporate clients in professional liability cases. She also served as an evaluator for the Wayne County Mediation Tribunal and for the Oakland County Circuit Court.
During her 28 years in private practice, she served on the boards of several professional and community organizations. She was a founding board member of the Michigan chapter of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (1980), treasurer and president of the Arab American Bar Association of Michigan (1982-94) and board member of Family Services in Detroit and Wayne County (1988-90). She also was a board member of the Federal Bar Association for Eastern Michigan (2007-16).
Majzoub was appointed federal magistrate judge in January 2004.
As a magistrate judge, she participated in several high-profile cases.
Majzoub arraigned defendants in the nation’s first female genital mutilation criminal case in 2017-18. She also arraigned Sebastian Gregerson, a so-called Islamic State “soldier” who was sentenced in 2017 to nearly four years in prison for purchasing weapons from an undercover FBI agent. She also presided over the arraignment and detention hearing of Tara Lynn Lee, a Macomb County woman who recently pleaded guilty to adoption fraud.
She also assisted district judges on hundreds of civil cases.
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