Magistrate Judge Robert J. French was appointed to the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in 1968. He served as a United States Magistrate Judge until 1976. Judge French was appointed as associate Judge of the 17th Judicial Circuit court in 1976 and served in that capacity until his retirement in 1995.

Judge French was born in Oak Park, Illinois and attended Illinois College in Jacksonville, Illinois, where he received his A.B. in 1951. He received his law degree from DePaul University College of Law in 1959. He was elected to the Rockton District School Board from 1967 to 1975. He was defeated in his bid for state’s attorney in 1964. Judge French was sworn in as a United States Commissioner for the Western Division of the Northern District of Illinois on January 3, 1968.

Judge French was a member of the American, the Illinois State, and the Federal Bar Associations, the American Judicature Society, and the National Council of Federal Magistrates Winnebago County Bar Association. He served on the Board of Directors, from 1973 to 1974, of the Lions Club Illinois Federation of Sportsmen Club. He served on the Fair Trial and Free Press Committee of the American Bar Association, the Illinois Supreme Court Alternative Dispute Resolution task force, and the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Committee on Courts and Community.