Judge Chang will talk about his career, the unique experiences and perspectives he has, and the importance of diversity in the judiciary.

In December 2010, the Senate unanimously confirmed Edmond Chang as a United States District Judge for the Northern District of Illinois. At that time, Judge Chang was the youngest federal judge in the nation. He is the first Asian- Pacific American Article III federal judge in Illinois, and the second APA Article III judge outside of the East and West Coasts. Judge Chang parent’s emigrated from Taiwan to the United States in the 1960s.  

Before joining the judiciary, Judge Chang was an Assistant United States Attorney in Chicago, starting in 1999. After prosecuting a wide variety of federal offenses, including child exploitation, firearms, and drug trafficking crimes, he was promoted to Deputy Chief of the General Crimes
Section in January 2004. In July 2005, he was selected to serve as the Chief of Appeals of the criminal division. In this role, Judge Chang supervised the government’s litigation in the Seventh Circuit in approximately 350 appeals, and personally handled over 30 appeals. 

From 1997 to 1999, Judge Chang practiced employment law at Sidley Austin. Before private practice, Judge Chang served two federal judicial clerkships, with Judge James L. Ryan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, and then-Chief Judge Marvin E. Aspen of the Northern District of Illinois.

Since 1996, Judge Chang has taught Civil Rights Litigation as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Northwestern University School of Law. Judge Chang earned his law degree with honors from Northwestern, where he served on the Northwestern University Law Review. He earned with honors a Bachelor’s of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.