United States District Judge Patti B. Saris became Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts on January 1, 2013. She was Chair of the United States Sentencing Commission in Washington, DC from January, 2011 to January, 2017.

Judge Saris is a graduate of Radcliffe College ‘73 (Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa) and Harvard Law School ‘76 (Cum Laude). After graduating from law school, she clerked for the Supreme Judicial Court, and then went into private practice.

When Senator Edward M. Kennedy became chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, she moved to Washington D.C. and worked as staff counsel. She later became an Assistant United States Attorney, and eventually Chief of the Civil Division. In 1986, Judge Saris became a United States Magistrate Judge, and in 1989, she was appointed as an Associate Justice of the Massachusetts Superior Court. In 1994, she was appointed to the United States District Court.