Magistrate Judge Tim A. Baker

Tim A. Baker was appointed U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Southern District of Indiana in 2001. Judge Baker has held various leadership positions in the Indiana State Bar Association and the Indianapolis Bar Association. He has been a frequent speaker on various legal education topics, and the IBA awarded Judge Baker the Dr. John Morton Finney, Jr. Award for Excellence in Legal Education. In 2011, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. appointed Judge Baker to a three-year term as Chair of the Federal Judicial Center’s Magistrate Judge Education Committee, which is responsible for educating new and experienced magistrate judges nationwide. Chief Justice Roberts first appointed Judge Baker to the committee in 2008.

Judge Baker has served on the ISBA Board of Governors, as a member of the ISBA House of Delegates, and as chair of the ISBA’s Federal Judicial Committee. Judge Baker received Presidential Citations in 2007 and 2009 for his service to the ISBA. Judge Baker’s IBA activities include serving on the IBA Board of Managers, during which time he was appointed as the IBA’s first Professionalism Coordinator. Judge Baker also served on the IBA’s Professionalism Committee, served as an instructor for the IBA Applied Professionalism Course, served as chair of the IBA’s Labor and Employment Law Section, and was a founding co-chair of the Law Student Division. Judge Baker is a Distinguished Fellow of the Indianapolis Bar Foundation.

From 1995 until his appointment to the bench, Judge Baker served as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana. Prior to serving as an Assistant U.S. Attorney, Judge Baker was in private practice from 1991 to 1995 with Barnes & Thornburg in Indianapolis, and from 1989 until 1991 served as a law clerk to U.S. District Judge Larry J. McKinney of the Southern District of Indiana.

Judge Baker graduated with distinction from Valparaiso University School of Law in 1989, where he was an editor of and contributor to the law review. Judge Baker has published numerous other articles in various journals, magazines, and newspapers. He graduated from Indiana University in 1984 with a bachelor of arts degree in journalism, where he was an award-winning writer for the university newspaper. After graduation from IU, Judge Baker was a writer for an Indiana daily newspaper before attending law school.