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 in President Reagan's Justice Department as a deputy assistant United States Attorney General of the Antitrust Division from 1987 to 1990.

Boudin served on the District Court for about 18 months, but resigned on January 31, 1992 to return to Massachusetts.

[4] 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 assumed senior status.