Thomas Edward Fairchild (December 25, 1912 – February 12, 2007) was an American lawyer and judge. He served forty years as a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Earlier in his career he was a justice of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, and the 31st attorney general of Wisconsin.
Thomas Edward Fairchild
Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals
Chief Judge — U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
Born 1912 in Milwaukee, WI
Died 2007 in Madison, WI
FJC ID: 731
Career output and lasting influence
Opinions attributed per year · peak 28/year
Later decisions citing those opinions, per year · peak 510/year
Wisconsin Supreme Court · 1957–1966Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals · 1966–2007
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 · 1975–1981
- Wisconsin Supreme CourtJustice · 1957–1966
- Private practice, Milwaukee, Wisconsin1945–1948, 1953–1957
U.S. attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin1951–1952- State of WisconsinAttorney general · 1948–1951
- U.S. Office of Price StabilizationConsultant · 1951
- U.S. Office of Price Administration, Chicago, Illinois, and Milwaukee, WisconsinHearing commissioner · 1941–1945
- Private practice, Portage, Wisconsin1938–1941
Appointments
1966–2007 · Appointed by Lyndon B. Johnson (Democratic)Term ended: Death
Education
- Cornell Universityba
- Mount Mary Universityjd
LL.B. · 1938- Cornell UniversityA.B. · 1934