William Charles Lee
Appointed by President Ronald Reagan in 1981 and confirmed by voice vote, William Charles Lee was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana. He earned a law degree from University of Chicago Law School in 1962. Rulings & record ↓ Sources ↓
- Lived
- 1938–2024
- Appointed by
- Ronald Reagan, 1981
- Confirmed
- by voice vote
- Education
- Yale 1959 · University of Chicago Law School 1962
- Succeeded by
- Philip P. Simon
Federal judicial service
| Year | Court | Appointed by | Vote |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | Northern District of Indiana | Reagan (R) | 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
| Yale University | A.B. | 1959 |
| University of Chicago Law School | J.D. | 1962 |
Judicial Record
Caseload & case types
In our data, Lee was assigned 5,222 district-court cases (1984–2023). Median time from filing to termination: 182 days across 5,219 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 131 of Lee’s decisions reviewed on the merits by the U.S. courts of appeals in our data, 97 were affirmed, 29 reversed or vacated, and 5 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, Lee authored 298 published opinions for the court (1982–2011). Most cited: Guenin v. Sendra Corp. (91 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A selective record from published opinions in the CourtListener corpus, not every ruling; most unpublished district orders are not included.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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | Guenin v. Sendra Corp. | 700 F. Supp. 973 | 91 |
| 1985 | Moffett v. Gene B. Glick Co., Inc. | 621 F. Supp. 244 | 51 |
| 1985 | Allen County Bank & Trust Co. v. Valvmatic International Corp. | 51 B.R. 578 | 38 |
| 1986 | Matter of Grieshop | 63 B.R. 657 | 33 |
| 1984 | Snyder v. Internal Revenue Service | 596 F. Supp. 240 | 32 |
| 1996 | Bollenbacher v. Helena Chemical Co. | 926 F. Supp. 781 | 29 |
| 1990 | Rodenbeck v. Marathon Petroleum Co. | 742 F. Supp. 1448 | 28 |
| 1984 | Cameron v. Internal Revenue Service | 593 F. Supp. 1540 | 28 |
| 1986 | Reeder-Baker v. Lincoln National Corp. | 649 F. Supp. 647 | 27 |
| 1986 | Robinson v. Moses | 644 F. Supp. 975 | 27 |
| 1986 | Dominguez v. Figel | 626 F. Supp. 368 | 27 |
| 1987 | Pieters v. B-Right Trucking, Inc. | 669 F. Supp. 1463 | 25 |
| 1984 | Miller v. Jones (In Re Jones) | 43 B.R. 1002 | 25 |
| 1995 | Oliver Ex Rel. Hines v. McClung | 919 F. Supp. 1206 | 24 |
| 1984 | Young v. Internal Revenue Service | 596 F. Supp. 141 | 24 |
Showing the 15 most-cited of 298 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 William Charles Lee?
- President Ronald Reagan appointed William Charles Lee to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana in 1981.
- Was William Charles Lee appointed by a Democrat or a Republican?
- William Charles Lee was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican. JudicialFinder records the appointing president's party, not a judge's own politics.
- What was William Charles Lee's confirmation vote?
- William Charles Lee was confirmed by voice vote on July 27, 1981. No senator-by-senator tally was recorded.
- Which court was William Charles Lee on?
- William Charles Lee was a Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana.
Sources
Each fact on this page traces to a primary public record.
- FJC Biographical Directory
- Wikidata
- 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.
42 years on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana. Data as of 2026-08-10. Informational only; verify against the primary source before relying. Not a consumer report (FCRA).