Joel Martin Flaum (November 26, 1936 – December 4, 2024) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and a United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
Joel Martin Flaum
Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals
Chief Judge — U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
Born 1936 in Hudson, NY
Died 2024
FJC ID: 767
Career output and lasting influence
Opinions attributed per year · peak 69/year
Later decisions citing those opinions, per year · peak 2,403/year
Illinois Northern District Court · 1974–1983Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals · 1983–2024
Both charts share the same year axis. Opinion counts include only opinions in our corpus attributed to this judge so far — a year at zero can mean an attribution gap, not judicial silence. Influence typically outlasts the career: citations keep climbing after the last opinion.
- Gender
- Male
- Race
- White
Prior employment
- Judicial Conference of the United StatesMember · 2000–2006
- JAG CorpsU.S. Naval Reserve lieutenant commander · 1981–1992
Northern District of IllinoisFirst assistant U.S. attorney · 1972–1975- State of IllinoisAssistant attorney general · 1969–1972
- ↳first assistant attorney general · 1970–1972
- Cook County, IllinoisAssistant state's attorney · 1965–1969
Lecturer · 1967–1969- Police Legal Advisory Program, Northwestern University School of LawAssociate director · 1967–1968
- Private practice, Chicago, Illinois1964–1965
Appointments
1983–2024 · Appointed by Ronald Reagan (Republican)Term ended: Death
1974–1983 · Appointed by Gerald Ford (Republican)Term ended: Appointment to Another Judicial Position
Education
- Union CollegeB.A. · 1958