James C. Duff

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James C. Duff is the Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts. His appointment by the United States Chief Justice John Roberts was announced on April 20, 2006. Duff assumed the office on July 1, 2006, succeeding Leonidas Ralph Mecham, who had served as Director of the AO for more than two decades.

Duff graduated from the University of Kentucky Honors Program in 1975 (political science and philosophy), where he was Phi Beta Kappa and played on the university’s basketball team. After studying at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland in 1974, he returned to the U.S. in 1975 to work as an aide in the chambers of Chief Justice Warren E. Burger. He graduated from Georgetown Law School in 1981, then worked at the law firm Clifford and Warnke, where, nine years later, in 1990, he became a partner. In 1991, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) scandal resulted in the law firm's dissolution. The largest contingent of Clifford and Warnke lawyers and staff, including Mr. Duff, were acquired by the firm of Howrey and Simon. Duff's practice focused on antitrust and commercial litigation and international trade.

From 1996 to 2000, Duff was Chief Justice William Rehnquist's Administrative Assistant, serving as his liaison with the other branches of government and as Executive Director of the Judicial Fellows Commission. Preceding Sally Rider as the equivalent of the Chief Justice's chief of staff, Duff assisted Rehnquist in his roles as chair of the Judicial Conference of the United States and the Federal Judicial Center Board and as presiding officer of the U.S. Senate’s 1999 impeachment trial of President Clinton.

From 2000 to 2006, Duff served as the managing partner of the Washington office of Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz, a firm based in Memphis, Tennessee. He has represented the Federal Judges Association before Congress as well as The Freedom Forum, the nonpartisan foundation that runs Washington, D.C.’s Newseum and the First Amendment Center and the Diversity Institute at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. According to a 2001 profile, "Duff still carries a small, 35-cent copy of the United States Constitution in the front breast pocket of his jacket," which is "worn and ragged" and "has been with Duff since he was in college."

In 2005, Chief Justice Rehnquist appointed Duff to chair the Judicial Fellows Commission. In September 2005, Duff was a pallbearer at Rehnquist's funeral, alongside seven of Rehnquist's former law clerks.

Duff and his wife, Kathleen Gallagher Duff, live in Bethesda, Maryland, and have three children. Duff is a member of the National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., and recently served as Treasurer of the church-supported non-profit National Center for Leadership.