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Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow

Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow

Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow is an Article III federal judge serving on senior status in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. She joined the court in 2000 after being nominated by President Bill Clinton. She assumed senior status on September 1, 2012. Her Honor was a federal magistrate judge in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois until 1997. She served as U.S. Bankruptcy Judge for the Northern District of Illinois until 2000. Judge Lefkow graduated from Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois with her bachelor’s degree and obtained her law degree from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law in Chicago, Illinois. Prior to her time on the bench, Her Honor was a law clerk to the late Hon. Thomas E. Fairchild of the Seventh Circuit.

Guest Appearances
January 4, 2022

Law Clerks

“The partnership between a federal judge and the judge’s clerk can be splendid and mutually rewarding relationship”