Robert William Gettleman
Appointed by President William J. Clinton in 1994 and confirmed by voice vote, Robert William Gettleman is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. He earned a law degree from Northwestern University School of Law (now Pritzker School of Law) in 1968. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Born
- 1943 · age 83
- Appointed by
- William J. Clinton, 1994
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Boston 1965 · Northwestern Law (now Pritzker School of Law) 1968
- Succeeded
- John Francis Grady
- Succeeded by
- Gary Feinerman
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | Northern District of Illinois succeeded John Francis Grady | Clinton (D) | Voice vote |
Party letters show the appointing president’s party, not the judge’s own. A voice vote means the chamber approved aloud. No senator-by-senator tally is recorded.
Confirmation vote
Voice vote
The Senate approved this confirmation aloud, with no senator-by-senator tally recorded. Recorded roll-call votes begin in 1989.
Education
| Boston University | B.S.B.A. | 1965 |
| Northwestern University School of Law (now Pritzker School of Law) | J.D. | 1968 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Gettleman was assigned 8,222 district-court cases (1982–2026). Median time from filing to termination: 166 days across 7,880 closed cases.
Case assignment is from CourtListener’s PACER-derived docket records: a partial sample, not a complete caseload, reflecting the judge last assigned each case. How we count.
On appeal
Of 262 of Gettleman’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 188 were affirmed, 50 reversed or vacated, and 24 affirmed in part and reversed in part. This is a historical count of appellate outcomes for cases we could match, not a judgment of the judge, and not a complete record. How we count.
In our data, Gettleman authored 311 published opinions for the court (1994–2011). Most cited: Paunescu v. Immigration & Naturalization Service (50 citations).
A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included. Counts and rankings are objective and recomputable: how we count. We describe the record, not the judge.
Recent & notable rulings
| Year | Case | Citation | Cited |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Paunescu v. Immigration & Naturalization Service | 76 F. Supp. 2d 896 | 50 |
| 2010 | Freedom Mortgage Corp. v. Burnham Mortgage, Inc. | 720 F. Supp. 2d 978 | 38 |
| 1997 | Cecala v. Moore | 982 F. Supp. 609 | 38 |
| 1998 | Carey v. Kerr-McGee Chemical Corp. | 999 F. Supp. 1109 | 35 |
| 2000 | MorEquity, Inc. v. Naeem | 118 F. Supp. 2d 885 | 32 |
| 1994 | Moore v. Fidelity Financial Services, Inc. | 869 F. Supp. 557 | 30 |
| 1997 | Marobie-FL, Inc. v. National Ass'n of Fire Equip. Distributors and Northwest Nexus, Inc. | 983 F. Supp. 1167 | 27 |
| 1996 | Chisholm v. Foothill Capital Corp. | 940 F. Supp. 1273 | 27 |
| 1996 | R2 Medical Systems, Inc. v. Katecho, Inc. | 931 F. Supp. 1397 | 27 |
| 2005 | Sotelo v. DIRECTREVENUE, LLC | 384 F. Supp. 2d 1219 | 26 |
| 2001 | Labor Ready, Inc. v. Williams Staffing, LLC | 149 F. Supp. 2d 398 | 26 |
| 1996 | Serpico v. Menard, Inc. | 927 F. Supp. 276 | 24 |
| 2001 | Hoffman v. Deloitte & Touche, LLP | 143 F. Supp. 2d 995 | 22 |
| 1998 | Tabor v. City of Chicago | 10 F. Supp. 2d 988 | 22 |
| 1995 | North Shore Gas Co. v. Salomon, Inc. | 896 F. Supp. 786 | 22 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 311 authored opinions in our data. “Cited” is inbound citations across the CourtListener corpus. Case links open the ruling’s full text (CourtListener) or its page here; read the methodology and verify against the primary source.
Questions & answers
- Who appointed Robert William Gettleman?
- President William J. Clinton appointed Robert William Gettleman to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in 1994.
- Was Robert William Gettleman appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- Robert William Gettleman was appointed by President William J. Clinton, a Democrat. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was Robert William Gettleman's confirmation vote?
- Robert William Gettleman was confirmed by voice vote on October 7, 1994. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court is Robert William Gettleman on?
- Robert William Gettleman is a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- Portrait: United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois (Public domain), via Wikimedia Commons
- CourtListener bulk data (Free Law Project): authored opinions & citation counts
How we source & reconcile data → Data & Sources
See something wrong? Report an error. Fixes are logged in the corrections log.
31 years on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).