Associate Justice Ive Arlington Swan

Ive Arlington Swan was born on St. Thomas, United States Virgin Islands. All of his formative years were spent on St. Thomas, where he attended public school at the Leonard Dober Elementary School, the Commandant Gade School and the Charlotte Amalie High School, from which he graduated in 1963.
Swan continued his education by matriculating in Morgan State University from which he graduated in 1967 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree. He entered Howard University's School of Law in 1967, from which he graduated in 1970 with a Juris Doctorate Degree. His legal Education also includes the completion of numerous courses for judges during 1987 to 2006 with the National Judicial College at the University of Nevada in Reno. Additionally, he has taken several judicial courses with the American Academy of Judicial Education.

Swan holds bar membership in the Washington, D.C. Bar Association (November 23, 1970) and the Virgin Islands Bar Association (February 8, 1971). He is an active member of the American Bar Association, the National Bar Association, the American Judges Association and the Society of Attorney Generals Emeritus (SAGE).

Swan has been admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, The United States District Court for the District of Columbia, and all the Courts of the United States Virgin Islands.

Swan commenced his legal career in August 1970, with the Virgin Islands Department of Law, (now the Virgin Islands Department of Justice.) During his ten-year tenure at the Department of Law, he held the positions of Legal Intern, Deputy Assistant Attorney General and Assistant Attorney General in both the Criminal and Family Law Division and the Civil and Administrative Law Division.

In January 1978, Swan was nominated by Governor Juan Luis for the position of Attorney General of the Virgin Islands. On March 3, 1978, he became the Attorney General of the Virgin Islands, a position he held for approximately three (3) years. As Attorney General, Swan managed and supervised the operations of the Department of Law, the legal branch of the Government of the Virgin Islands. He similarly directed the legal business and legal affairs of the Government of the Virgin Islands, including litigation in which the Government, its departments and its agencies appeared as parties. He likewise served on several government boards and commissions. Swan also published several attorney generals' opinions on a myriad of legal issues.

In 1981, Swan entered the private practice of law and operated his law offices until July 1987. His private practice included matters and litigation on Corporation Law, Family Law, Probate Law, Real Estate Law, Labor Law and Criminal and Civil, Jury and non-jury, cases. Additionally, Swan served as a labor arbitrator, adjudicating labor disputes and grievances, while conducting his legal practice.

In 1987, Swan was nominated and re-nominated in 1993 by the late Governor Alexander A. Farrelly to be a judge on the Territorial Court of the Virgin Islands. In 2000, Swan was nominated by Governor Charles W. Turnbull to be a judge of the Territorial Court and re-nominated in 2006 to be a judge of the Superior Court of the Virgin Islands. During his more than nineteen (19) years on the Superior Court and Territorial Court, he has presided over all types of cases cognizable by a court of general jurisdiction. During his judicial career, he has served a total of three and one-half years in the Family Court.

In July 2006, Governor Charles W. Turnbull nominated Swan for the position of Associate Justice of the newly created Supreme Court of the Virgin Islands. His nomination was confirmed by the Twenty-Sixth Legislature of the Virgin Islands on October 27, 2006. It was the sixth time Swan has won unanimous legislative confirmation; namely, 1978 Attorney General of the Virgin Islands; 1987, 1993, 2000, Judge of the Territorial Court; 2006 Judge of the Superior Court; and 2006 Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Virgin Islands.

Justice Swan is married to Gertrude Niles Drue Swan, with whom he has shared more than thirty years.