Hon. Hala Y. Jarbou is a District Judge for the United States District Court for the Western District of Michigan. She was nominated to the federal bench by President Donald Trump on March 18, 2020, and confirmed by the United States Senate on September 10, 2020. Jarbou filled the seat vacated by the Hon. Robert Holmes Bell. She holds the distinction of being the first Chaldean-American to serve on the federal bench.
Prior to her nomination, she had presided as a judge for the Sixth Circuit Court in Oakland County, a position to which she was appointed by former Governor Rick Snyder in October 2015. On the Circuit Court, Jarbou presided over the Adult Treatment Court.
Before beginning her judicial career, Jarbou was an Assistant United States Attorney with the Office of the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, where she began in 2010. During her tenure there, she prosecuted federal felonies, including firearms cases, child pornography, and high-level drug trafficking cases.
She joined the Department of Justice after working for thirteen years as an assistant prosecuting attorney with the Office of the Prosecuting Attorney in Oakland County (1997 to 2010).
She received a B.B.A. from the University of Michigan-Dearborn in 1994. Jarbou went on to complete a J.D. at Wayne State University Law School in 1997.
Her memberships have included the Federalist Society, the American Bar Association, the Chaldean American Bar Association, the Michigan Judges Association, the Oakland Bar Association, the Chaldean Chamber of Commerce, and the Chaldean American Ladies Charity.
Jarbou also taught as an instructor at the Oakland Police Academy and The National Advocacy Center.
She received the Chaldean American Bar Association’s Pillar of Justice Award in 2018.
Jarbou was born in Telkaif, Iraq, and immigrated to the United States with her family as a child. At the time of her nomination, she resided in West Bloomfield. Jarbou identifies as Chaldean Catholic.