Legislation has been proposed to create a pilot program in district courts nationwide, which would allow United States District Judges of the pilot project district courts to choose whether to hear patent cases. The patent cases involved in the pilot program would still be randomly assigned. However, if a patent case was assigned to a judge who did not wish to hear patent cases, the case could be reassigned until it was assigned to a judge who was willing to hear patent cases.
HONORABLE JAMES F. HOLDERMAN has been a U.S. district judge in Chicago since 1985, and has been the chief judge of the Northern District of Illinois since July 2006. During his more than 20 years on the bench, Judge Holderman has presided over numerous cases in all areas of federal jurisdiction. Before his appointment to the U.S. District Court, Judge Holderman was a partner with Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal, where he specialized in federal court litigation across the United States. Before private practice, he was an assistant U.S. attorney in Chicago.
Judge Holderman has taught at several law schools, including the University of Chicago, the John Marshall Law School and the University of Illinois, and he has been a long-standing faculty member at trial advocacy programs sponsored by the National Institute for Trial Advocacy. Judge Holderman is active in the area of court reform, serving as a co-chair of the 7th Circuit Bar Association American Jury Project and as the judicial coordinator of the conversion of the Northern District of Illinois to electronic filing.
Judge Holderman was honored in 2004 with the Distinguished Judicial Service Award by the Intellectual Property Law Association of Chicago for exemplary service in continuing legal education. He received both his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he served as the managing editor of law review.
HONORABLE ROBERT W. GETTLEMAN was appointed a U.S. district judge for the Northern District of Illinois in 1994, by President Bill Clinton. Judge Gettleman is a 1968 graduate of Northwestern University School of Law, and received his undergraduate degree from Boston University. He has authored several articles for law reviews as well as other legal publications. He is currently on the editorial board of the American Bar Association's Litigation Magazine and is on the adjunct faculty of Northwestern University School of Law.
From 1968 to 1970, Judge Gettleman was law clerk to Chief Judge Latham Castle and Chief Judge Luther M. Swygert of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit. Prior to his appointment to the federal bench, Judge Gettleman was head of litigation at the Chicago law firm of D'Ancona & Pflaum, which he joined in 1970.
During his years in private practice, Judge Gettleman also served on the boards of a number of nonprofit advocacy organizations, as well as serving as a member and chairman of the Illinois Guardianship & Advocacy Commission and as a member of the Governor's Commission to Revise the Mental Health Code of Illinois.
HONORABLE ELAINE E. BUCKLO has been a U.S. district judge in Chicago since 1994. She clerked for Judge Robert Sprecher on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit following graduation from Northwestern University School of Law, magna cum laude. She also served as a U.S. magistrate judge in Chicago from 1985 to 1994. She was a partner at Miller Shakman & Beem and taught at the University of California at Davis School of Law.
Judge Bucklo is an editor of Litigation Magazine, published by the American Bar Association Section of Litigation. She is a former president of the Chicago chapter of the Federal Bar Association. From 1991 to 1995, Judge Bucklo was a judicial member of the Civil Justice Reform Act Advisory Group for the Northern District of Illinois. She was also a member of the Advisory Committee to the Magistrate Judges Division of the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts. She is the author of numerous articles.