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Charles Frederick Lettow (born February 10, 1941) is a judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims, appointed to that court in 2003 by President George W. Bush.
Born to Carl F. and Catherine Lettow in Iowa Falls, Iowa, Lettow received a B.S.Ch.E. from Iowa State University in 1962. He served in the U.S. Army with the Third Infantry Division from 1963 to 1965, and thereafter received an LL.B. degree from Stanford University in 1968, where he was Note Editor of the Stanford Law Review and a member of Order of the Coif. He was a law clerk to Judge Ben C. Duniway, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, from 1968 to 1969, and to Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, Supreme Court of the United States, from 1969 to 1970. Lettow served as Counsel to the Council on the Environmental Quality in the Executive Office of the President from 1970 to 1973. He then joined the law firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, first as an associate from 1973 to 1976, and then as a partner until 2003. During that time, he argued three cases in the U.S. Supreme Court and more than 40 cases in the federal courts of appeals, and handled numerous cases in federal trial courts.
While at Cleary, Gottlieb, Lettow was active with educational institutions and bar organizations. He served as a member of the board of trustees of The Potomac School from 1983 to 1990, and was chairman of the board from 1985 to 1988. He also was chairman of the Environmental Controls Committee of the Section of Business Law, American Bar Association, from 1983 to 1987. In January 1992, Lettow received an award from the National Association of Attorneys General "for sustained assistance to the States in their preparation for appearances before the Supreme Court of the United States". He became a member of the American Law Institute in 1994, and in 1997 and 1998, he received awards from the National State and Local Legal Center for amicus briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court. Lettow also received and a M.A. in history from Brown University in 2001.
On July 14, 2003, Lettow was appointed a judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims. He was confirmed by the United States Senate, and entered on duty on July 22, 2003.
Lettow maintains an interest in academic research on historical topics, particularly in the Tudor-Stuart period in England and the corresponding colonial period in the United States. He also sustains an interest in agriculture and farming. He is married and resides in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan areas. He and his wife have four children.