Catherine D. Perry has been a United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Missouri since October of 1994. She served as Chief Judge of the district from 2009 through 2015. She served as a United States Magistrate Judge on the same court from June of 1990 until her appointment by President Clinton as a District Judge. Judge Perry was in private practice in St. Louis before her appointment.

Judge Perry served as a member of the Judicial Panel for Multidistrict Litigation from 2014 to 2021. She previously served on the Committee on Information Technology, which recommends automation policy for the federal judiciary. Locally, she is the Court liaison to the Judicial Learning Center, a not-for-profit corporation that established a center in the Thomas F. Eagleton Courthouse for teaching citizens about the American system of justice.