---
title: "Nancy Lee Maldonado | KnowJudges"
canonical: "https://knowjudges.com/kyj/judge/nancy-lee-maldonado"
page_type: "judge_profile"
updated: "2026-10-07"
---

# Nancy Lee Maldonado

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit · U.S. Circuit Judge

## Profile

- Court: U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
- State: National federal courts
- Role: U.S. Circuit Judge
- Service status: active
- Last verified: 2026-07-25

## Summary

Official statewide and applicable court procedural guidance applies to this judge.

## Biography

### Professional career

- American judge who has held the role of a United States Circuit Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit since July 11, 2024
- She then joined Miner, Barnhill & Galland, P.C. in Chicago as an associate in 2003, later becoming a partner in 2010
- Law clerk, Hon.Rubén Castillo, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, 2001-2003
- After law school, Maldonado clerked for Judge Rubén Castillo of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (2001–2003).
- Notable as the first Latinx judge on the Seventh Circuit and the first Latina federal judge in Illinois
- Her practice focused on labor and employment law, civil rights, and fraud cases, often representing farmworkers, healthcare workers, and other employees
- She became the first Hispanic woman to serve as a federal judge on this court

### Education

- Columbia Law School in — J.D. (2001)
- B.A., cum laude, from Harvard College in 1997
- Harvard University — B.A. (1997)

### Additional information

- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (2024–present) Nominated by President Biden on February 21, 2024, confirmed by the Senate on July 8, 2024 (47–43), and commissioned July 11, 2024.
- Her district court service ended July 11, 2024, when she was elevated to the appellate court.
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (2022–2024) Nominated by President Joe Biden on April 13, 2022, confirmed by the Senate on July 19, 2022 (53–45), and commissioned August 10, 2022.
- Private practice, Chicago, Illinois, 2003-2022
- Maldonado was born in Skokie, Illinois in 1975 to parents who migrated from Puerto Rico.
- Date of birth: 1975-11-28
- She also held state-level roles, including on the Illinois State Police Merit Board and as a Special Assistant Attorney General.
- She succeeded Judge Ilana Kara Diamond Rovner.
- She was a Stone Scholar at Columbia and served on the Columbia Human Rights Law Review.
- Birth place: Skokie

## Before you appear

- Read the judge-specific standing order first when one is listed.
- Check the docket and case orders for requirements that supersede broader guidance.
- Confirm current remote-access and courtroom technology arrangements before the proceeding.

## Courtroom Rules

### appellate oral argument

Scope: courtwide

In federal courts of appeals, oral argument is allowed unless a three-judge panel unanimously finds one of Rule 34's specified grounds for dispensing with it; the clerk provides the date, time, place, and time allocation.

Evidence excerpt: Oral argument must be allowed in every case unless a panel of three judges who have examined the briefs and record unanimously agrees that oral argument is unnecessary

[Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 34, Oral Argument](https://www.uscourts.gov/forms-rules/current-rules-practice-procedure/federal-rules-appellate-procedure)
Source checked: 2026-07-26


## Sources

- [Official profile](https://www.fjc.gov/node/12282101)
- [Official roster](https://www.fjc.gov/node/12282101)
- [Federal Judicial Center biography](https://www.fjc.gov/node/12282101)
- [Federal Rule of Appellate Procedure 34, Oral Argument](https://www.uscourts.gov/forms-rules/current-rules-practice-procedure/federal-rules-appellate-procedure)
- [Judge Nancy Lee Maldonado](https://www.fjc.gov/node/12282101)
- [Wikidata: Nancy L. Maldonado](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q111595830)

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