Senior U.S. District Judge Atlas, appointed in 1995, sits in Houston, Texas. She served on the Committee on Judicial Security of the U.S. Judicial Conference from 2005 to 2015, which she chaired from 2010 to 2015. Judge Atlas has been active in the American Bar Association and its Section of Litigation in various leadership roles She co-founded the Houston Intellectual Property Inn of Court, and is a member of the American Law Institute. Before her judgeship, Judge Atlas was a council member of the State Bar of Texas Alternative Dispute Resolution Section, co-chaired the committee that created the Texas Ethical Guidelines for Mediators, and served as a Director and Treasurer of the Houston Bar Foundation. Judge Atlas graduated from Tufts University magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, earned her JD from NYU School of Law, and was a commercial litigator in New York and Texas.