Judge Richard L. Young was appointed to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana on March 25, 1998, and has served as Chief Judge from November 2009 to November 2016.  He assumed senior status on March 31, 2023.  He has chambers, and presides over cases, in Evansville and Indianapolis.
 

Prior to his appointment, Judge Young served as Vanderburgh Circuit Court Judge for eight years.  He was a partner in the law firm of Hayes & Young in Evansville from 1980 to 1990.  During that period, he served as Corporation Counsel for the City of Evansville and as a Public Defender in Vanderburgh Circuit Court.
 

Judge Young graduated from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1975 and from George Mason University School of Law in Fairfax, Virginia, in 1980.  Active in the Indiana Judges Association, he was a long time member of the House of Delegates of the Indiana State Bar Association and of the Board of Directors of the Evansville Bar Association, serving as its president from 1994 to 1995.  He served on the Indiana Supreme Court Committee on the Rules of Evidence from 1994 to 1995.  Judge Young also served on the boards of the Southwestern Indiana Easter Seal Society, the Evansville Rehabilitation Center, the Vanderburgh County Community Foundation, and the Evansville Museum of Art and Sciences, as well as on the Vanderburgh County Community Corrections Advisory Board, the Evansville Board of Public Works, and the Evansville Downtown Master Plan Steering Committee.  Judge Young served as the Seventh Circuit's elected District Judge representative on the Judicial Conference of the United States Courts, the policy-making body for the federal court system, from 2009 to 2012.  He also served on the Judicial Conference Committee on the Administration of the Magistrate Judges System from 2003 to 2009.  Judge Young currently serves on the Judicial Conference Committee for Space and Facilities.  He currently is a member of the Board of Visitors, Indiana University Maurer School of Law and Youth First.  Judge Young frequently lectures on the subjects of trial advocacy and legal writing.