Bates served as Director of the Administrative Office of the United States Courts, from July 1, 2013[1] to January 5, 2015,[2] after which he returned to full-time service[2] as a senior judge.

[4] He and his wife, Carol Ann Rhees, also a former lawyer with Steptoe & Johnson LLP, live in Bethesda, Maryland.

In 1998, he joined the Washington, D.C. law firm of Miller & Chevalier, where he was Chair of the Government Contracts/Litigation Department and a member of the executive committee.

He was a member of the Board of Directors of the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs.

In 2005, he was appointed by Chief Justice William Rehnquist to serve on the Judicial Conference of the United States' Committee on Court Administration and Case Management (CACM).