John Watson Lungstrum attended Pembroke Country Day School in Kansas City, Missouri, won a National Merit Scholarship and a Yale National Scholarship, then went on to graduate magna cum laude from Yale University. He earned his juris doctor degree from the University of Kansas, where he served as editor-in-chief of the Law Review and achieved membership in the Order of the Coif, an academic honor society. At the University of Kansas, his participation in the Reserve Officers Training Corps earned him the Distinguished Military Graduate Award, and prepared him for active service in the Army. He served for 21 months on active duty, including 13 months in Korea, winning the Army Commendation Medal, and then practiced law with the firm of Stevens, Brand, Lungstrum, Golden & Winter in Lawrence, Kansas. In private practice and after his 1991 appointment to the federal bench, Judge Lungstrum has been involved in education. He has been Lecturer in contracts and evidence at the University of Kansas School of Law, and has served on the Faculty of the Kansas Bar Association College of Advocacy, Trial Tactics and Techniques Institute. Judge Lungstrum is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation, became the district’s Chief Judge in January 2001, and served in that role until December 2007. He has served a chair of the Committee on Court Administration and Case Management of the Judicial Conference of the United States and was appointed in 2005 to the Budget Committee, became Chair of the Economy Subcommittee in 2013, and was appointed by Chief Justice Roberts as Chair of the Budget Committee in 2018.  Judge Lungstrum sits on the federal bench in Kansas City, Kansas.