Judge Iain D. Johnston was appointed to the position of United States District Judge for the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Western Division in September 2020. He handles dispositive matters for civil and all felony criminal matters in the Division. From 2013 through 2020, he was the U.S. Magistrate Judge for the same court, where he handled pretrial matters for all civil and criminal cases.

Judge Johnston earned his Bachelor of Science from Rockford University in 1987 and his Juris Doctor from UIC John Marshall Law School in 1990. Following law school, he clerked for Judge Philip G. Reinhard in both the Illinois Appellate Court and United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. Judge Johnston was also a Unit Supervisor in the Office of the Illinois Attorney General. He then entered private practice, during which time he was a partner at Altheimer & Gray and senior counsel at Holland & Knight. On April 1, 2008, with Andrew Greene, he co-founded Johnston Greene LLC, where he litigated nearly anything a client would pay him to litigate.

Judge Johnston has published dozens of articles, which have been relied on as authority by courts across the country. He was The Last DJ on SiriusXM’s Tom Petty Radio during the week of July 4, 2022. He also serves as an adjunct professor at UIC John Marshall Law School.