Jonathan Lebedoff retired as Chief United States Magistrate Judge for the Federal District of Minnesota effective September 20, 2005. At that time he began a private mediation and arbitration practice in Minneapolis.

Judge Lebedoff served as a judge from 1971 until September 2005. He was appointed a Hennepin County Municipal Court Judge in December 1971 and served in that capacity until he was appointed a District Court Judge for the State of Minnesota in April 1974. This work included a great deal of mediation work, including Judge Lebedoff being in charge of all Dalkon Shield litigation in Minnesota. The entire Dalkon Shield litigation in Minnesota was successfully concluded with a mutually satisfactory mediation. In September 1991, Judge Lebedoff became a United States Magistrate Judge. During the following 14 years, Judge Lebedoff presided over literally thousands of mediations covering the entire range of civil litigation. This certainly includes intellectual property cases, employment discrimination cases and class action suits. Judge Lebedoff was reappointed as United States Magistrate Judge in 1999 and was named Chief Magistrate Judge on March 1, 2002.