President Jimmy Carter appointed Judge Edward C. Reed, Jr. to the United States District Court in October 1979. Judge Reed became Acting Chief Judge in 1983 and Chief Judge in 1986. He assumed his current status as Senior District Judge in July 1992.

After graduating from Reno High School in 1942, Judge Reed enlisted in the United States Army. During World War II, he served as a Staff Sergeant in the E.T.O. and the South Pacific; he was a prisoner of war in Germany in 1945. Judge Reed received his college education at the University of Nevada and received his J.D. degree from Harvard Law School in 1952.

Judge Reed worked as an attorney with Arthur Andersen & Co. in Boston before returning to Reno to join the law firm which later became Reed & Bowen. He served as a Special Deputy Attorney General of Nevada for water rights litigation from 1967 to 1979. Prior to becoming a member of the judiciary, Judge Reed served as a member of the Washoe County School Board (1956-1972). In Sparks, Nevada, Reed High School is named for him. Judge Reed is a member of Phi Kappa Phi, American Legion, State Bar of Nevada, the American Bar Association, and the American Judicature Society.