Gary Feinerman

Born in Skokie, Illinois,[1] the son of Steven and Bette Feinerman[2][3] Feinerman earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1987 from Yale University.[1] He graduated from Stanford Law School with a Juris Doctor in 1991, where he finished second in his class[4] and was a member of Stanford Law Review and Order of the Coif.[1] From 1991 until 1992, Feinerman worked as a law clerk to United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit Judge Joel Flaum.[1] From 1992 until 1993, Feinerman worked as an associate in the Chicago law firm of Mayer Brown. From 1993 until 1994, Feinerman worked as a law clerk for U.S. Supreme Court Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy, alongside future justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.[5]

From 1994 until 1996, Feinerman worked for the United States Department of Justice as Counsel to the Office of Policy Development and also on detail to the Office of the Counsel of the President in 1995. From 1996 until 1999, Feinerman again worked as an associate for the Chicago law firm Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw. He served as a partner at the firm from 2000 until 2003. While at Mayer Brown, Feinerman performed pro bono work for the NAACP.[4] From 2003 until 2007, Feinerman worked in the office of the Illinois Attorney General as the state's Solicitor General.[1] On Nov. 5, 2003, Feinerman argued before the U.S. Supreme Court for petitioner in Illinois v. Lidster.[6] The Court ultimately voted 6–3 for Illinois, holding that police departments may set up roadblocks to question motorists with no individual or collective suspicion of criminal activity, but rather to collect information about a recent hit-and-run accident.[7] In 2007, Feinerman joined the Chicago law firm Sidley Austin as a partner, where he worked until becoming a United States District Judge.[5]

In 2009, Feinerman applied for a vacant federal judgeship in Chicago. In August 2009, Feinerman's name was one of seven that Senator Dick Durbin submitted to the White House. On February 24, 2010, President Obama formally nominated Feinerman for the vacancy created by Judge Robert William Gettleman, who took senior status in May 2009.[8] On April 15, 2010, the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary reported Feinerman's name to the full Senate.[9] The full Senate voted 80–0 to confirm Feinerman on June 28, 2010, and he received his commission the next day.[5]

• Gary Feinerman at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.
• Gary Feinerman at Ballotpedia