BIOGRAPHY
Judge Oberdorf er, a native of Birmingham, Alabama, was
appointed United States District Judge for the District of Columbia
on October 11, 1977 and entered on duty November 1, 1977. Judge
Oberdorfer elected to take senior status on July 31, 1992. He is
a 1939 graduate of Dartmouth College, and received an LL.B. degree
from Yale Law School in 1946, after military service from 1941 to
1946.
Judge Oberdorf er was law clerk. to Justice Hugo L. Black
during the 1946 Term of the Supreme Court. He was Assistant
Attorney General, Tax Division, Department of Justice, from 1961
to 1965. He was in private practice from 1947 until 1961, and
again from 1965 until 1977. At the time of his appointment to the
bench, Judge Oberdorfer was a member of Wilmer, Cutler and
Pickering in Washington, D.C., and was serving as President of the
District of Columbia Bar. He also served as Co-Chairman of the
Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, 1968-1969, a member
of the Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure,
and was Chief Executive Officer of the Legal Services Corporation
during its formation in 1975.
From 1962 to 1984, he was a member of the Judicial Conference
Advisory Committee on Civil Rules. He is presently a member of
the American Bar Association, the American Law Institute, the
District of Columbia and Alabama Bars, and an Adjunct Professor at
the Georgetown Law Center.
· · Judge Oberdorf er is married to the former Elizabeth Weil.
They have four children: John, Kathryn, Thomas, and William, and
five grandchildren.
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