Judge Young B. Kim is a U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Northern District of Illinois. He was born in South Korea, and his family emigrated to the United States when he was 11 years old. He began his legal career as a public defender in 1991. From 1993 to 1995, he clerked for District Judge Charles R. Norgle of the Northern District of Illinois. From 1995 to 2001, Judge Kim served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney with the Chicago office and prosecuting and litigating both civil and criminal cases. In 2001, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission appointed him to serve as an Administrative Judge. Nine years later, in January 2010, the District Court for the Northern District of Illinois appointed Judge Kim to a magistrate judge position. As a federal judge he particularly enjoys presiding over citizenship naturalization ceremonies in the ceremonial courtroom where he himself was naturalized as a U.S. citizen in 1986.