@Judges_CH and the JUDGES Clearinghouse website were both created and are currently managed by Judge Nicholas J. McNamara.

Since 2009 Judge Nicholas McNamara has been one of 17 Circuit Court judges in Dane County, Wisconsin, and currently serves as the Presiding Judge of the Criminal Division, a position he also held from 2011 to 2015. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School in 1993, and earned a B.A. from the University of Iowa in 1987. In 1987-88 he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study philosophy in Germany.

These social media experiments are personal endeavors and are not presented on behalf of any fellow judges, committees, local, state or national courts or other entities. Nothing on this website or the @Judges_CH Twitter account reflect or communicate any views, opinions or conclusions about any specific case or specific matters that might come before Judge McNamara in litigation.

Judge McNamara is a frequent guest lecturer at the UW Law School and has presented at numerous judicial education seminars, usually on topics related to the use of actuarial instruments in judicial decision-making or addressing special issues related to jury trials. As an attorney he tried 55 jury trials in civil matters and since 2009 has presided as judge for more than 165 jury trials, most of which involved criminal cases at all levels of seriousness.

Judge McNamara is not a criminologist; he is not a statistician, nor an economist, nor a sociologist. He is only a judge.

But like all trial-level judges, Judge McNamara is routinely required to make momentous decisions in the lives of people involved in the criminal justice system. He is also a judge who believes that criminal justice research, data guided evidence and science generally can improve the judicial process and increase the probability of just outcomes.