District Judge Franklin U. Valderrama was appointed to the Northern District of Illinois by President Donald J. Trump in 2020. He is the first Panamanian American to serve as an Article III judge in the Northern District of Illinois.
Judge Valderrama was born in Panama City, Panama. After law school, he began his career in 1988 as a staff attorney for the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Northern Illinois. In 1989, he joined the Law Office of Tom Leahy as an associate. In 1992, he joined Landau, Omahana & Kopka as an associate. Starting in 1993, he worked at Sanchez, Daniels & Hoffman in Chicago, where his practice focused on trial litigation, and he left as a partner. He served as an adjunct professor at UIC John Marshall Law School. He served as an Associate Judge on the Cook Judicial Circuit Court from 2007 to 2020 before his federal appointment.
Education
- DePaul University College of Law, J.D., 1988
- University of Illinois at Chicago, B.A., 1985
Career
- Associate Judge, Cook Judicial Circuit Court (2007–2020)
- Partner, Sanchez, Daniels & Hoffman, Chicago (1993–2007)
- Associate, Landau, Omahana & Kopka (1992–1993)
- Associate, Law Office of Tom Leahy (1989–1992)
- Staff Attorney, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of Illinois (1988–1989)