Robert M. Dow, Jr. has served as a United States District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois since December 2007. On December 5, 2022, he assumed new duties as Counselor to Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. In this capacity, he serves as the Supreme Court’s chief operating officer and assists the Chief Justice in his administrative responsibilities as head of the federal judiciary. These include the Chief Justice’s roles as Chair of the Judicial Conference of the United States, Chair of the Board of the Federal Judicial Center, and Chancellor of the Smithsonian Institution.

From 2013 to 2022, Judge Dow served on the Judicial Conference’s Advisory Committee on Civil Rules. He chaired the committee’s Rule 23 Subcommittee from 2013 to 2017 and its MDL Subcommittee from 2017 to 2020 and served as Chair of the full committee from 2020 to 2022. Judge Dow was a member of the Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules from 2010 to 2013. He has sat by designation on the United States Courts of Appeals for the Sixth and Seventh Circuits. He is a member of the American Law Institute and the Board of Editors for the revision of the MANUAL FOR COMPLEX LITIGATION, 4TH. He teaches complex litigation as an Adjunct Professor at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law.

Prior to his judicial service, Dow was a partner in the Chicago office of Mayer Brown LLP and the President of the Illinois Appellate Lawyers Association (2005-06). Judge Dow received a B.A. (1987) in History and Political Science from Yale University. He earned 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. Immediately after law school, he clerked for Judge Joel M. Flaum of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.