A fourth-generation Kansan, Judge Julie Robinson is the first African American appointed a U.S. District Judge for the District of Kansas. Judge Robinson received her undergraduate and juris doctorate degrees from the University of Kansas, where she later was an instructor in trial practice for the law school and president of its Board of Governors. Judge Robinson was a law clerk for U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Benjamin E. Franklin. For 11 years she was an Assistant U.S. Attorney, handling civil and criminal cases. In 1994, she was appointed a U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the District of Kansas, where she served until 2001 when President George W. Bush appointed her a U.S. District Judge. Judge Robinson was Chief Judge of this court from 2017 to 2021.

Judge Robinson has served the federal judiciary at the national level in a variety of capacities. She serves on the Budget Committee and the Workplace Conduct Working Group. She is a past chair of the Court Administration and Case Management Committee, and has served on the Strategic Planning Committee, and as a Commissioner of the United States Supreme Court Fellows. She currently serves on the Committee on Science, Technology and Law of the National Academies of Science. Judge Robinson has served on the Board of Trustees for the American Inns of Court Foundation, and she has been elected to the American Law Institute. Locally, she has served on the board of Saint Paul School of Theology and chaired the board of Healing House of Kansas City.