Marvin Aspen

Marvin E. Aspen (born July 11, 1934) is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Judge Aspen received a Bachelor of Science degree from Northwestern University in 1956 and a Juris Doctor from Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law in 1958.

He was a law clerk in the Court of Claims Section of the United States Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. in 1958.

He was in the Illinois National Guard from 1958 to 1960, and was an Air Force Reserve Command Airman from 1960 to 1964.

He was also in private practice as an attorney in Chicago from 1958 to 1959, and in 1971, serving in the interim as an assistant state attorney of Cook County, Illinois from 1960 to 1963, and as an assistant corporation counsel for the City of Chicago from 1963 to 1971, where he was Head of the Appeals and Review Division.

The ACLU-initiated 1966 class action lawsuit Dorothy Gautreaux v. Chicago Housing Authority (CHA) alleged that the CHA engaged in racial discrimination in public housing policy, as prohibited by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

He was appointed to the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, for an interim position on September 16, 1971, and on November 4, 1974, was elected to a full term.

He served five years in the Criminal Division and three years in the Civil Law-Jury Division.

As a state trial judge, Judge Aspen chaired the Recent Developments in Criminal Law, Evidence, and New Judges Committees of the Illinois Judicial Conference.

As an Assistant State’s Attorney, Judge Aspen was assigned to the Appeals Division in the State’s Attorney’s Office where he argued over 100 criminal appeals before the Illinois Supreme Court.

The cases Judge Aspen handled as an Assistant Corporation Counsel for the City of Chicago included Shakman v. Democratic Organization of Cook County, No. 69-cv-2145 (N.D. Ill.), a case that Judge Aspen handled at its outset until he left the City shortly thereafter to enter into private practice.

Shakman involved allegations that the City, County, and Democratic Party conspired to perpetuate party loyalty, monetary contributions, and other forms of patronage as a condition of obtaining City and County employment.

These actions allegedly excluded ordinary citizens without political connections from working for the City or County.

Judge Aspen also represented Mayor Daley’s third-party testimony in the Chicago Seven Trial.

For more than three decades, Judge Aspen has taught courses in evidence, criminal law, trial technique, and municipal law at Northwestern University School of Law.

On April 30, 1979, Judge Aspen was nominated by President Jimmy Carter to a new seat on the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois created by 92 Stat.

1629. He was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate on July 23, 1979, and received his commission on July 24, 1979.

The Northern District of Illinois adopted a Trial Bar in 1982.

This requires attorneys to belong to the Trial Bar before appearing alone on behalf of a defendant in a criminal proceeding or during testimonial proceedings in a civil case.

Non-members of the trial bar may appear in these matters only if accompanied by advising members of the trial bar.

Trial Bar membership includes a duty to handle pro bono assignments from the Court.

Aspen has held judicial seats by designation in courts throughout the country, including the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals, District of Hawaii, District of Arizona, Southern District of New York, Middle District of Tennessee, and Middle District of Florida.

Aspen served as Chairman of the Seventh Circuit’s Committee on Civility in the Legal Profession from 1989 to 1992.

The Committee compiled and analyzed over 1,500 survey responses on civility submitted by both lawyers and judges.

In 1992, he was named the Edward Avery Harriman Adjunct Professor of Law by Northwestern University School of Law.

He has lectured at university, United States government, and other legal education programs.

Subjects have included judicial management, continuing legal education, and complex litigation.

He has planned and participated in legal seminars at Harvard University, Emory University, University of Florida, University of Mississippi, Oxford University (England), University of Bologna (Italy), Nuremberg University (Germany), University of Cairo (Egypt), University of Zimbabwe, University of Malta, University of the Philippines, and the University of Madrid (Spain).

He has served as Chair of the Advisory Board of the Institute of Criminal Justice of the John Marshall Law School and as a member of the Georgetown University Law Center Project on Plea Bargaining in the United States.

Judge Aspen also has been a frequent faculty member of the National College of the State Judiciary, University of Nevada (Reno) and the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (Colorado).

Judge Aspen has served on a special faculty (composed of British and American lawyers and judges) for the NITA Advanced Trial Advocacy Program, which introduces British trial techniques to experienced American Litigators.

Judge Aspen has also served on a special faculty (composed of Scottish and American lawyers and judges) for an American Bar Association program, which is designed to acquaint Scottish lawyers with modern litigation and technology.

Aspen has written extensively on numerous legal subjects.

His publications include five books and more than two dozen articles.

In June 1992, the Committee authored a “Final Report of the Committee on Civility of the Seventh Federal Judicial Circuit” to address the decline of civility standards in the litigation practice.

The Committee’s report observed a transgression in the legal occupation from one that was once widely perceived as congenial relationships to one of abrasive confrontations.

The committee report included a number of recommendations: (1) adopting the Standards for Professional Conduct that outlined lawyers’ duties to other counsel and the court, courts’ duties to lawyers, and judges’ duties to each other; (2) providing a copy of the Standards for Professional Conduct to each lawyer admitted to practice in any court within the Seventh Circuit and requiring each lawyer to certify that he or she has read and will abide by the Standards; (3) implementing civility training at public law officers, private law firms, corporations with in-house counsel, and federal judicial workshops; (4) participating in or establishing civility, professionalism or mentoring program; and (5) encouraging law schools to incorporate the Standards of Professional Conduct into their curricula.

Aspen led the effort to create the Trial Bar Program.

He served as a member of the U.S. Judicial Conference’s Trial Bar Implementation Committee and helped create the Trial Bar Program in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

He served as Chief Judge from 1995 to 2002, assuming senior status on July 1, 2002.