ABOUT
Judge Christopher P. Yates joined the Michigan Court of Appeals on April 18, 2022, after serving for 14 years as a trial judge on the Kent County Circuit Court in Grand Rapids. Judge Yates received a BA from Kalamazoo College in 1983, and a JD and MBA from the University of Illinois in 1987. As an attorney, Judge Yates served as a law clerk to Chief Judge James P. Churchill of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan and to Judge Ralph B. Guy, Jr., of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Judge Yates also has worked as a federal prosecutor in Detroit, as an attorney-advisor in the Office of Legal Counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., as Chief Federal Public Defender for the Western District of Michigan, and as a partner in two private law firms in Grand Rapids. Judge Yates is a past co-chair of the ABA Business Law Section’s Judges Initiative Committee and a current member of the Section Council.
