His maternal grandfather was Morris Roisman (1879-1960) from Fälesti, Bessarabia. His mother was Jean Roisman Boudin (1912-1994). Michael Boudin is a former United States District Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. He was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 2010. From 1966 to 1987 Boudin practiced regulatory law at Covington & Burling, a Washington, D.C. law firm. He spent 21 years at Covington &Burling, primarily drafting appellate briefs in complex regulatory matters for corporate clients. He worked as a visiting professor at Harvard Law School from 1982 to 1983, and then as a lecturer there from 1983 to 1998. He then served ni President Reagan's Justice Department as a deputy assistant United States Attorney General of the Antitrust Division from 1987 to 1990. On May 18, 1990, President George H. W. Bush nominated Boudin to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, to a seat vacated by John H. Pratt. He was confirmed by the United States Senate on August 3, 1990, and received his commission on August 7. Boudin served on the District Court for about 18 months, but resigned on January 31, 1992 to return to Massachusetts. Two months later, on March 20, 1992, President Bush nominated Boudin to an appellate judgeship on the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, headquartered in Boston, to the seat vacated when Judge Levin H. Campbell took senior status.