Hon. Robert M. Dow Jr.

U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois

U.S. District Judge Robert M. Dow, Jr. (N.D. Illinois) is the Chair of the Advisory Committee on Civil Rules. He has been a member of that Committee since 2013 and has chaired its Rule 23 and MDL Subcommittees. From 2010 to 2013 he served as a member of the Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules. Judge Dow has sat by designation on the Sixth and Seventh Circuits and is a member of the American Law Institute. He teaches complex litigation at Northwestern University Law School.  Prior to joining the bench in 2007, Dow was a partner at Mayer Brown LLP. Judge Dow received a B.A. (1987) from Yale University, M. Phil. (1990) and D. Phil. (1997) degrees in International Relations from the University of Oxford, which he attended on a Rhodes Scholarship, and a J.D. (1993) from Harvard Law School. He clerked for Judge Joel M. Flaum on the Seventh Circuit.