Claire C. Cecchi serves as a United States District Judge for the District of New Jersey in Newark, New Jersey. She joined the Court as a United States Magistrate Judge in 2006, a position she held until her appointment in 2011. She has a substantial caseload of civil and criminal matters and was a designated judge in the patent pilot program, handling numerous high-profile patent cases. She is also actively managing a sizable multi-district litigation involving personal-injury claims arising from the use of proton-pump inhibitors.

Judge Cecchi is from Whitestone, Queens, New York and graduated from The Bronx High School of Science in 1982. She received her Bachelor’s Degree cum laude in 1986 from Barnard College, Columbia University, where she studied political science and history. She received her Juris Doctor in 1989 from Fordham University School of Law, where she was a recipient of the Gulbenkian Merit Scholarship.

Following her graduation from law school, Judge Cecchi served as an Assistant Corporation Counsel in the Office of the Corporation Counsel, City of New York. Thereafter, she was an Associate at Robinson, St. John & Wayne from 1992 to 1996 and its successor firm, Robinson, Lapidus & Livelli in 1996. Subsequently, at the firm of Carpenter, Bennett & Morrissey she was an Associate from 1997 to 2001 and a Partner from 2001 to 2004. The firm later merged and became known as McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter, where she was also a Partner. She specialized in complex litigation in federal and state courts of New Jersey and other jurisdictions.

The New Jersey Law Journal named Judge Cecchi one of New Jersey’s “40 Under 40” in 2002. Among her other honors, Judge Cecchi received the Fordham Law Alumni Association’s Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2016, was an honoree at the Armenian Bar Association’s Public Servants Dinner in 2018, and was presented with the New Jersey Women Lawyers Association’s Women’s Initiative and Leaders in the Law Platinum Award in 2020. She is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, a Member of the Historical Society of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey, and was a Master of the William J. Brennan, Jr./Arthur T. Vanderbilt American Inn of Court.