Jennifer Walker Elrod (born Jennifer Leigh Walker; September 6, 1966) is an American lawyer and jurist serving as the chief United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

After high school, Elrod studied economics at Baylor University, graduating in 1988 with a Bachelor of Arts, magna cum laude.

In 2002, Governor Rick Perry appointed Elrod to be a judge on the 190th District Court in Harris County.

As a state district court judge, she presided over jury and bench trials involving civil litigation.

President George W. Bush nominated Elrod to a vacancy on the New Orleans-based Fifth Circuit, the primary court of appeal for all federal trial court cases in Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana,[2] on March 29, 2007, She succeeded Judge Patrick Higginbotham, who assumed senior status on August 26, 2006.