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Robert M. Dow Jr. Appointed New Counselor to Chief Justice Roberts

On October 3, the Supreme Court of the United States announced that Robert M. Dow Jr. will be appointed new Counselor to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., succeeding Jeffrey P. Minear, who retired on September 30. Dow will assume his position on December 5, 2022.

In accepting this appointment, Judge Dow said: “I am grateful to Chief Justice Roberts for the opportunity to serve him, the Supreme Court, and the judicial branch in this new role. It is an honor and privilege to succeed Jeffrey Minear following his long and highly successful tenure as Counselor.”

More from the SCOTUS press release:

Judge Dow has served as a United States District Judge since December 2007 and is active in service to the Judicial Branch. He is Chair of the Judicial Conference’s Advisory Committee on Civil Rules on which he has served since 2013. From 2010 to 2013, he served as a member of the Advisory Committee on Appellate Rules and from 2012 to 2018, he was Chair of the Advisory Committee on Circuit Rules for the Seventh Circuit. Judge Dow has sat by designation on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth and Seventh Circuits and is a member of the American Law Institute. Prior to his judicial service, he was a partner at Mayer Brown LLP, where he was a member of the firm’s Appellate and Supreme Court and Telecommunications practice groups.

Judge Dow received his Bachelor’s degree in history and political science from Yale University, graduating summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 1987. He earned an M.Phil. in international relations in 1990 and a D.Phil. in international relations in 1997, from the University of Oxford, which he attended on a Rhodes Scholarship. He received a J.D. at Harvard Law School, cum laude, in 1993. Following law school, he clerked for Judge Joel M. Flaum of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.

Judge Dow teaches complex litigation as an adjunct professor at Northwestern University Law School.

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