Robert W. Pratt

Robert W. Pratt (born 1947) is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Iowa. Education and career Born in Emmetsburg, Iowa, Pratt received an Associate of Arts degree from Iowa Lakes Community College in 1967, a Bachelor of Arts degree from Loras College in 1969, and a Juris Doctor from Creighton University School of Law in 1972. In college, he worked as a construction laborer and factory worker. He was a staff attorney of Polk County Legal Aid Society from 1973 to 1974, during which time his colleagues included future Senator Tom Harkin. He was in private practice in Des Moines, Iowa from 1975 to 1997 at Funaro, Brick, & Pratt, then at Hedberg, Brick, Tann, Pratt & Ward, and then as a sole practitioner. His areas of practice included personal injury, workers' compensation, Social Security, federal indigent criminal defense, and union-side labor law. When he was confirmed, he described himself as having "devoted all of [his] practice to the problems of the low income and working class people of Iowa." He jokes that he "is the only lawyer to have left legal aid and gotten poorer clients." He also worked for Harkin's political campaigns. Federal judicial service