U.S. Senate confirms judicial candidate for Illinois

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate has confirmed John Lee for a federal judicial post on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.

In announcing the Senate vote Monday, Sen. Dick Durbin called Lee an outstanding choice of the federal bench. Durbin notes that Lee is only the second Korean-American to serve as a federal district court judge in the country.

Lee graduated magna cum laude from Harvard and cum laude from Harvard’s law school. He’s a partner at the Chicago law firm of Freeborn & Peters LLP where his practice concentrates on commercial litigation.

After law school, Lee worked as a trial attorney in the Justice Department representing the U.S. in environmental cases before various federal courts.