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The US Senate has confirmed Indian American federal Magistrate Judge Sunil Harjani to be the federal district court judge on the Chicago-based Northern District of Illinois. He becomes the first South Asian American to serve as a US district judge in the Northern District of Illinois.
With the Senate’s 53-46 vote Tuesday to confirm Harjani, he becomes the first South Asian American to serve as a US district judge in the Northern District of Illinois. “We are pleased that the Senate has confirmed Judge Sunil Harjani to serve as a District Court Judge for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division,” US Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and US Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) stated.
“Judge Harjani was highly regarded by our screening committee and brings strong qualifications and a wealth of courtroom experience—including as a Magistrate Judge for the Northern District of Illinois since 2019—that will strengthen our federal bench,” they wrote.
Harjani has been a United States Magistrate Judge for the Northern District of Illinois since 2019. He is a resident of Joliet and Northwestern graduate. He previously served as an Assistant US Attorney and Deputy Chief of the Securities and Commodities Fraud Section in the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois from 2008 to 2019.
He also practiced federal civil litigation as a senior counsel at the US Securities & Exchange Commission from 2004 to 2008 and as an associate at Jenner & Block LLP in Chicago from 2000 to 2001 and 2002 to 2004.
Harjani served as a law clerk for Judge Suzanne B. Conlon on the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois from 2001 to 2002. He received his JD, cum laude, from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law in 2000 and his BA from Northwestern University in 1997.
