The Clerk of Court for the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico is pleased to announce that the Honorable Gustavo A. Gelpí has been sworn-in as Chief Judge for the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico. Appointed first as Magistrate Judge on June 29, 2001 and subsequently as District Judge on August 1, 2006, Chief Judge Gelpí was sworn-in on Friday, April 13, 2018 by Judge Juan M. Pérez-Giménez in a private ceremony. He succeeds the Hon. Aida M. Delgado-Colón, who has served as Chief Judge since 2011. Chief Judge Gelpí recognizes Judge Delgado-Colón’s passion and commitment to the Court’s mission during her tenure as Chief United States District Judge for the District of Puerto Rico.
Chief Judge Gelpí obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree with a concentration in history in 1987 from Brandeis University and received his law degree in 1991 from Suffolk University in Boston, Massachusetts, where he was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree in 2006. Following law school, Chief Judge Gelpí served as a law clerk to Judge Juan M. Pérez-Giménez from 1991 to 1993.
From 1993 to 1996, he served as an Assistant Federal Public Defender. In 1996, while at the Federal Public Defenders Office, he became the first assistant Public Defender from this District designated as Special Counsel at the United States Sentencing Commission, in Washington, D.C.
In 1997 Chief Judge Gelpí returned to Puerto Rico and commenced working at the Puerto Rico Department of Justice, where he served first as an assistant to the Attorney General, and then as Assistant Attorney General. In 1999, Chief Judge Gelpí was appointed as Solicitor General of Puerto Rico, where he argued various important constitutional and public policy issues before several appellate judicial fora. Before his appointment as United States Magistrate Judge in 2001, Chief Judge Gelpí worked in the litigation department of the McConnell Valdés law firm.
Chief Judge Gelpí served as President of the Puerto Rico Chapter of the Federal Bar Association (“FBA”) during 2000 and became a Fellow of its Foundation in 2002. In 2014, he served as the FBA’s National President – the first Article III Judge in the nation to do so. He has also served as an adjunct professor of law at the University of Puerto Rico, Interamerican University, Pontifical Catholic University Schools of Law, and his alma mater, Suffolk University Law School.