On November 19, 2024, the United States Senate confirmed Sarah French Russell as a United States District Judge for the District of Connecticut. She received her commission from President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. on November 26, 2024, and was sworn in by the Honorable Jeffrey A. Meyer, U.S. District Judge, on December 20, 2024.

Judge Russell received her B.A. from Yale College in 1998 and her J.D. from Yale Law School in 2002. Following law school, she clerked for Chief Judge Michael B. Mukasey of the Southern District of New York and Circuit Judge Chester J. Straub of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. After clerking, Judge Russell served as an Assistant Federal Public Defender for the District of Connecticut, before serving as lecturer in law and Director of the Arthur Liman Public Interest Program at Yale Law School, where she also taught in several of Yale’s legal clinics. She taught at Quinnipiac University School of Law from 2011 until her appointment to the federal bench, serving as professor of law and Director of the Legal Clinic.

Judge Russell previously served as counsel to the Federal Grievance Committee for the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut and as a member of the Connecticut Sentencing Commission and the Connecticut Committee on Judicial Ethics.