Patti Saris

District Judge for the District of Massachusetts. President Obama nominated Judge Saris to be a member and chair of the Commission on April 28, 2010. The Senate confirmed her nomination on December 22, 2010. Judge Saris has served as a United States district judge for the District of Massachusetts since 1994, having been nominated to the federal bench by President Clinton on October 27, 1993. Prior to her appointment to the district court, Judge Saris served as an associate justice for the Massachusetts Superior Court from 1989 to 1993. From 1986 to 1989, Judge Saris served as a federal magistrate judge for the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. She was an attorney in the Civil Division of the United States Department of Justice from 1982 to 1986, and held the position of Chief of the Civil Division, Office of the United States Attorney for Massachusetts, from 1984 to 1986. From 1979 until 1981, Judge Saris served as staff counsel to the United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary. Judge Saris received her B.A., magna cum laude, in 1973 from Radcliffe College and her J.D., cum laude, in 1976 from Harvard Law School. She served as a law clerk to the late Justice Robert Braucher of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court from 1976 to 1977.