John Helm Pratt (November 17, 1910 – August 11, 1995) was an American lawyer and judge. Born in New Hampshire, Pratt spent most of his life in the Washington, D.C. area, where he practiced law for 34 years before being appointed as a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in 1968 by President Lyndon B. Johnson. As a federal judge, Pratt presided over a number of significant cases, including the Watergate trial of G. Gordon Liddy and civil rights cases involving school desegregation and discrimination based on sexual orientation. Early life and education Pratt was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on November 17, 1910, to Harold B. and Marguerite R. Pratt. At age nine, he and his family moved to the Washington, D.C. area, after his father, a United States Marine Corps officer, was stationed in the area. Pratt and his family briefly moved to Boston (where Pratt studied at the Boston Latin School) but later returned to Washington, where Pratt graduated from Gonzaga College High School and served as a United States Senate page. Pratt studied at Georgetown University for two years before transferring to Harvard University, where he received an Artium Baccalaureus degree cum laude in 1930 at the age of 19. Pratt then attended Harvard Law School, receiving a Bachelor of Laws in 1934. Military service and legal career Pratt served in the United States Marine Corps from 1942 and was discharged with the rank of captain in 1946. During World War II, he served in the Pacific theater, where he earned a Bronze Star and Purple Heart. He lost a left arm, in December 1944, in Tacloban, Leyte, the Philippines. He convalesced at Biak, Dutch New Guinea, and then at naval hospitals in the United States, including Bethesda Naval Hospital. Prior to taking the federal bench, Pratt was in the private practice of law in Washington, D.C. for 34 years. He was an associate at Morris, KixMiller & Baar from 1934 to 1942, and a partner at Morris, Pearce, Gardner & Pratt from 1946 to 1968, when he was appointed to the federal bench. Federal judicial service Pratt was nominated by President Lyndon B. Johnson on April 11, 1968, to a seat on the United States District Court for the District of Columbia vacated by Judge Alexander Holtzoff. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on