Mimi Methvin is a fighter. She taught a kickboxing class for ten years, and at 51, she earned a second-degree black belt.
With 28 years’ experience as a federal and state judge along with a track record as a successful attorney and mediator, Mimi knows how to lead opposing sides to work together and find solutions. She’s also a mother, a yoga instructor, and a genealogist.
Mimi believes the spirit of civility, respect and integrity that this country was founded on must be reignited to preserve our democratic institutions. She wants to bring her common sense, skill and intellectual honesty to Washington as a strong voice for the people of Louisiana’s Third Congressional District.
With broad experience in the justice system, combined with her family’s deep Louisiana roots, Mimi has a rare understanding of our state and district. She was appointed U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Western District of Louisiana at Lafayette in 1983 and left the bench in 2009 to launch her private mediation and consulting firm. She later served as a federal magistrate judge in Pennsylvania and Maryland before the Louisiana Supreme Court appointed her Judge Pro Tempore for the 27th Judicial District Court in St. Landry Parish in 2014, where she served for six months.
Mimi graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Tulane University and received her J.D. Degree from Georgetown University Law Center. While at Georgetown, she worked full-time for U.S. Representative Gillis Long, and later worked as an Assistant U.S. Attorney both as a prosecutor and as a civil litigator defending medical malpractice suits.
As a judge, Mimi presided over jury and non-jury cases, and has extensive experience managing and supervising complex cases from initial discovery through settlement or trial, including a number of class actions, collective actions, and multi-district litigation arising from Hurricane Rita. She has conducted more than 1,200 settlement conferences and mediations.
Mimi served on the national policy-making committee for federal magistrate judges, and organized both American Inns of Court in Lafayette, Louisiana. She currently serves on the Fifth Circuit Advisory Committee for the American Inns of Court Foundation — an organization that works toward professionalism, ethics, civility, and excellence for the legal profession and judiciary.
She is board chair of AMIkids Acadiana, a residential facility for at-risk youth in Acadia Parish, and serves on AMIkids’ national executive committee.
She is a board member of the Federal Bar Association, Acadiana Chapter, and is a frequent speaker on trial advocacy and alternative dispute resolution.
Mimi is the mother of Michael and Connor McManus, proud graduates of Lafayette High School,who moved to New Orleans in 2013 after college graduation. Michael is a portrait artist, and Connor is a planner and designer at an architecture and planning firm. Connor is also an artist. He is married to Antonia Angress, a school teacher and writer.
