Philip M. Pro was appointed United States District Judge for the District of Nevada by President Ronald Reagan in July 1987 and has served as Chief Judge for the District of Nevada since 2002. Prior to his appointment as District Judge, Judge Pro served as United States Magistrate Judge from 1980 to 1987.

Judge Pro received his J.D. degree from Golden Gate University School of Law in June 1972. Shortly thereafter, he began his legal career as a law clerk for Judge William Compton of the Eighth Judicial District Court in Las Vegas. From 1973 to 1975, he served as a Deputy Public Defender for Clark County; as an Assistant United States Attorney both at Las Vegas and Reno from 1975 to 1977; as a partner in the law firm of Semenza, Murphy and Pro in Reno from 1977 to 1979; and as Deputy Attorney General for the State of Nevada assigned to the gaming division from 1979 to 1980.

In October 1993, Chief Justice Rehnquist appointed Judge Pro as chair of the Committee on the Administration of the Magistrate Judges System of the Judicial Conference of the United States, a position he held through October 1998. He served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Federal Judges Association from 1992 to 2001 and served as vice president from 1997 to 2001.

Judge Pro has served as a member of the Ninth Circuit Jury Instructions Committee, and currently serves as a member of the Ninth Circuit Capital Case Committee and Chair of the Ninth Circuit Wellness Committee. He is also an active member of the Nevada American Inn of Court, serving as its president from 1988 to 1990.

Since 1998, Judge Pro has participated in a variety of international “Rule of Law” programs in the countries of Hungary, Republic of Georgia, Netherlands, and Spain. In March 2003, he was a Co-moderator for the U.S. Department of Justice Colloquium for Iraqi Jurists in Washington, D.C. Judge Pro currently serves on the William S. Boyd School of Law Advisory Committee and on the Nevada State Bar Advisory Commission on Law-Related Education.

He is active in the We, the People . . . the Citizen and the Constitution program for high school students, and has participated in a wide variety of continuing legal education programs sponsored by local, state and national bar associations, including the Department of Justice Attorney General Advocacy Institute.