Honorable Patti B. Saris

Chief Judge, United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts

United States District Judge Patti B. Saris was born in Boston, Massachusetts, and has resided in the Boston area for most of her life. She is a graduate of Radcliffe College '73 and Harvard Law School '76. After graduating from law school, she clerked for the Supreme Judicial Court, and then went into private practice. When Senator Edward M. Kennedy became chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, she moved to Washington D.C. and worked as staff counsel. She later became an Assistant United States Attorney, and eventually chief of the Civil Division. In 1986, Judge Saris became a United States Magistrate Judge, and in 1989, she was appointed as an Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court. In 1994, she was appointed to the United States District Court by President Clinton. She became Chair of the United States Sentencing Commission in January, 2011.