| Rebecca Pallmeyer | |
| Office: | Senior Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois |
| Term Start: | August 1, 2024 |
| Office1: | Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois |
| Term Start1: | July 1, 2019 |
| Term End1: | August 1, 2024 |
| Predecessor1: | Rubén Castillo |
| Successor1: | Virginia Mary Kendall |
| Office2: | Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois |
| Term Start2: | October 22, 1998 |
| Term End2: | August 1, 2024 |
| Appointer2: | Bill Clinton |
| Predecessor2: | William Thomas Hart |
| Successor2: | Georgia N. Alexakis |
| Office3: | Magistrate Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois |
| Term Start3: | 1991 |
| Term End3: | 1998 |
| Birth Name: | Rebecca Ruth Pallmeyer[1] |
| Birth Date: | 13 September 1954 |
| Birth Place: | Tokyo, Japan |
Rebecca Ruth Pallmeyer [2] (born September 13, 1954) is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
Pallmeyer was born September 13, 1954, in Tokyo, Japan.[3] Pallmeyer received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Valparaiso University in 1976 and a Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago Law School in 1979. She was a law clerk to Rosalie E. Wahl, Minnesota Supreme Court Justice, from 1979 to 1980. She was in private practice in Chicago, Illinois, from 1980 to 1985 at the law firm of Hopkins & Sutter. She was an administrative law judge on the Illinois Human Rights Commission from 1985 to 1991.[1] She was a United States magistrate judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois from 1991 to 1998.
Pallmeyer was nominated by President Bill Clinton on July 31, 1997, to a seat on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois vacated by Judge William Thomas Hart. She was confirmed by the United States Senate on October 21, 1998, and received her commission on October 22, 1998.
On July 1, 2019, she became chief judge of the Northern District of Illinois. She is the first female to do so, in the nearly 200 years of the court's existence.[4] [5] She served as the chief judge from July 1, 2019 to August 1, 2024, when she assumed senior status.