Judge Lindsay C. Jenkins: Professional Background and Legal Expertise

The Hon. Lindsay C. Jenkins is a judge for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. She was nominated to the bench by President Joe Biden on January 3, 2023, filling the vacancy created by the Hon. John Zihun Lee. The United States Senate confirmed her appointment on February 14, 2023.

Prior to her nomination, Jenkins was a partner at Cooley LLP in Chicago (2021 to 2023), where she practiced in the firm’s white collar defense and investigations practice group.

Before that, she was a longtime assistant United States attorney with the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, having joined the office in 2006. Over the course of the next fifteen years, she rose through the ranks, serving as deputy chief of General Crimes (2011), deputy chief of Narcotics and Gangs (2011 to 2013), deputy chief of Violent Crimes (2013 to 2015), deputy chief of Public Corruption and Organized Crime (2015 to 2016), chief of General Crimes (2016 to 2018), chief of Violent Crimes (2018 to 2019), and chief of the Criminal Division (2019 to 2021).

Jenkins received a bachelor’s degree from Miami University in 1998. She then completed a J.D. at Cleveland State University College of Law in 2002.

Jenkins began her legal career as a law clerk to the Hon. Solomon Oliver, Jr. with the United States District Court for the Northern District of Ohio (2002 to 2004) before entering private practice as an associate at Jones Day in Cleveland, Ohio, in 2004. She remained with the firm for two years until relocating to Illinois to serve as a federal prosecutor.

Jenkins has taught as an adjunct professor at Loyola University, Chicago School of Law, and at Northwestern University, Pritzker School of Law.

She is a two-time recipient of the Chicago Crime Commission’s Criminal Justice Award and received both the United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division commendation and the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General commendation. Jenkins was also named amongst Chicago Lawyer’s Top 50 Women in Law and is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers.

She was born in Cleveland, Ohio.