The Hon.

Amy

J.

St. Eve

Judge Amy J. St. Eve was appointed as a United States Circuit Court Judge for the Seventh Circuit in 2018. Prior to her appointment, she served as a United States District Court Judge for the Northern District of Illinois from 2002-18. At 36, she was one of the youngest judges ever appointed in the Northern District of Illinois. Judge St. Eve has sat by designation with the Ninth Circuit and Federal Circuit Courts of Appeals. In 2002, she received Crain’s Chicago Business’ Top Forty Under Forty Award. Judge St. Eve also received the Mary Heftel Hooton award from the Women’s Bar Association of Illinois in 2015. In 2020, she was awarded the 2020 Judge Joel Flaum Award by the Chicago Inn of Court. Judge St. Eve is also an honorary member of Cornell University’s Quill & Dagger Honor Society.

Judge St. Eve serves as an Adjunct Professor at Northwestern Law School where she teaches trial advocacy and complex civil litigation. She is the co-author of “How Unappealing: An Empirical Analysis of the Gender Gap among Appellate Attorneys,” American Bar Association (2021); “What Juries Really Think: Practical Guidance for Trial Lawyers,” 103 Cornell L. Rev. Online 149 (2018); “More From the #Jury Box: The Latest on Juries and Social Media,” 12 Duke L. & Tech. Rev. 64 (2014); “The Forgotten Pleading,” 7 Fed. Cts. L. Rev. 152 (2012); “Ensuring A Fair Trial in the Age of Social Media,” 11 Duke L. & Tech. Rev. 1 (2012); and “The Fault Allocation Provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 – A Roadmap for Litigants and Courts,” 3 N.Y.U. J. L. & Bus. 187 (Fall 2006). She is also a co-editor of Federal Employment Litigation (The Rutter Group Practice Guide).            

Judge St. Eve is the Chair of the Seventh Circuit Pattern Criminal Jury Instructions Committee (2018-present). She has been a member of the Judicial Conference Committee on the Budget since 2018 and became the Chair of the Budget Committee in 2021. She previously served as a member of the Judicial Conference Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure (2013-19), the liaison to the Judicial Conference Advisory Committee on Criminal Rules (2013-19), the Judicial Conference Committee on Court Administration and Case Management (2006-13), and the Federal Judicial Center's District Judge Education Advisory Committee (2016-18). Judge St. Eve also served as the Seventh Circuit Representative to the Federal Judges Association (2007-13). She has been a member of the American Law Institute since 2018. 

Judge St. Eve graduated from Cornell University in May 1987 with a B.A. in history. During the summer of 1986, she attended Oriel College at Oxford University in England. In 1990, Judge St. Eve graduated magna cum laude and Order of the Coif from Cornell Law School. She was a member of the Cornell Law Review and served as an Articles Editor.       

From 1990-1994, Judge St. Eve worked as a litigation associate at Davis Polk & Wardwell in New York, New York. She served as an Associate Independent Counsel for the Whitewater Independent Counsel in Little Rock, Arkansas from 1994-1996 where she second chaired the successful prosecution of former Governor Jim Guy Tucker, Jim McDougal and Susan McDougal for fraud. From August 1996 through April 2001, Judge St. Eve served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Northern District of Illinois. In 2001, she became Senior Counsel in Litigation at Abbott Laboratories.