Chad A. Readler is a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Judge Readler earned his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Michigan. After graduating, he served as a law clerk to Judge Alan Norris of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Judge Readler then began practicing law in the Columbus office of the international law firm Jones Day, eventually spending ten years as a partner in the firm’s Issues and Appeals Practice Group. While at Jones Day, Judge Readler appeared in state and federal trial and appellate courts around the country, most frequently the Supreme Court of Ohio and the Sixth Circuit. Judge Readler also successfully argued before the United States Supreme Court in McQuiggin v. Perkins on behalf of an inmate claiming actual innocence. His other pro bono representations include representing capital defendants before the Tenth Circuit and the Supreme Court of Ohio, as well as representing defendants sentenced to life in prison before the Sixth Circuit. While at Jones Day, Judge Readler traveled to Nairobi with Lawyers Without Borders to train Kenyan lawyers in prosecuting domestic violence cases, and he was also a recipient of the American Marshall Memorial Fellowship awarded by the German Marshall Fund of the United States. Following his career in private practice, Judge Readler served as Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Division of the United States Department of Justice from 2017 to 2019. In that role, Judge Readler led and supervised over 1,000 lawyers in the Department’s largest litigating division, briefing and arguing several cases on behalf of the United States in federal courts across the country, including high-profile cases significant to the Administration and the Department.  In March 2019, Judge Readler was confirmed to serve as a Circuit Judge on the Sixth Circuit.  He resides in Columbus.

Thomas L. Kirsch II is a Circuit Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Prior to his judicial appointment in 2020, he served as the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Indiana since 2017. From 2008 until 2017, Judge Kirsch was a partner at Winston & Strawn LLP in Chicago, litigating commercial and criminal matters in trial and appellate courts across the United States and conducting corporate internal investigations. Before joining Winston & Strawn, Judge Kirsch served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Northern District of Indiana from 2001 to 2008, focusing on white collar investigations and prosecutions, including the prosecution of numerous elected and appointed public officials. In 2006 and 2007, Judge Kirsch served as Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General at the United States Department of Justice Office of Legal Policy in Washington, D.C. He is a former law clerk to the Honorable John D. Tinder in the Southern District of Indiana. Judge Kirsch is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. He received a B.A. from Indiana University in 1996 and a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1999.

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