CHIEF JUDGE
![[photo, James K. Bredar, U.S. District Court Judge (Maryland)]](/msa/mdmanual/39fed/02usd/images/1198-1-07986b.jpg)
JAMES KELLEHER BREDAR, Chief Judge, U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, since October 6, 2017 (Judge, December 22, 2010 to October 6, 2017).
U.S. Magistrate Judge, January 26, 1998 to December 17, 2010. Member, Committee on Federal-State Jurisdiction, U.S. Judicial Conference, 2007-14.
Deputy District Attorney, 14th Judicial District, Moffat County, Colorado, 1984-85. Assistant U.S. Attorney, District of Colorado, 1985-89.
Assistant Federal Public Defender, District of Colorado, 1989-91.
Federal Public Defender, District of Maryland, 1992-98.
Born in Omaha, Nebraska, February 6, 1957. Attended parochial and public schools, Denver, Colorado; Manual High School, Denver, Colorado; Harvard University, B.A. (economics), cum laude, 1979; Yale Law School, visiting student, 1981-82; Georgetown University Law Center, J.D., cum laude, 1982. Admitted to Colorado Bar, 1983. Law clerk to Judge Richard P. Matsch, U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado, 1983-84. Project Director, Vera Institute of Justice, London, 1991-92 (trustee, 2007-17). Admitted to U.S. Supreme Court Bar, 1994; Maryland Bar, 1995. Board of Governors, Maryland Chapter, Federal Bar Association, 1994-2011. Member, Lawyers' Round Table. Author, Justice Informed: The Pre-Sentence Pilot Trials in the Crown Court (1992); "Moving Up the Day of Reckoning: Strategies for Attacking the Cracked Trials Problem," Criminal Law Review (1992). Power 100 List, Daily Record, 2021.
Office: (410) 962-0950
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