Senior District Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow was appointed to the Northern District of Illinois by President William J. Clinton in 2000.
Judge Lefkow was born in 1944 in rural Nemaha County, Kansas. After law school, she clerked for Judge Thomas E. Fairchild of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit from 1971 to 1972. She was a staff attorney at the Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago from 1972 to 1975, then an administrative law judge at the Illinois Fair Employment Practices Commission from 1975 to 1979. She was an instructor at the University of Miami Law School from 1980 to 1981 and executive director of Cook County Legal Assistance Foundation from 1981 to 1982. She served as U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Northern District of Illinois from 1982 to 1997, then as U.S. Bankruptcy Judge in the Northern District of Illinois from 1997 to 2000, before being elevated to district judge. She assumed senior status on September 1, 2012.
Education
- Northwestern University School of Law (Pritzker School of Law), J.D., 1971
- Wheaton College, Illinois, A.B., 1965
Career
- Senior District Judge, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois (2012–present)
- District Judge, U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois (2000–2012)
- U.S. Bankruptcy Judge, Northern District of Illinois (1997–2000)
- U.S. Magistrate Judge, Northern District of Illinois (1982–1997)
- Executive Director, Cook County Legal Assistance Foundation (1981–1982)
- Instructor, University of Miami Law School (1980–1981)
- Administrative Law Judge, Illinois Fair Employment Practices Commission (1975–1979)
- Staff Attorney, Legal Assistance Foundation of Chicago (1972–1975)
- Law Clerk, Hon. Thomas E. Fairchild, U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit (1971–1972)