HALDANE ROBERT MAYER has been a member of the court since 1987. He served as Chief Judge from 1997 to 2004. Born in Buffalo, Judge Mayer was educated in the public schools of Lockport, New York, before attending the United States Military Academy at West Point, from which he graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in 1963. He earned a law degree in 1971 at the Marshall-Wythe School of Law of The College of William and Mary, where he was editor-in-chief of the William and Mary Law Review as well as a member of Omicron Delta Kappa National Leadership Society. He has served as a director of the William and Mary Law School Association.

Judge Mayer served on active duty in the Army of the United States from 1963 until 1975 in the Infantry and the Judge Advocate General's Corps. He was awarded the Bronze Star Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Army Commendation Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Combat Infantryman Badge, Parachutist Badge, Ranger Tab, RVN Ranger Combat Badge, and several campaign and service ribbons. He resigned his Regular Army commission to take an Army Reserve commission, retiring in 1985 as a lieutenant colonel.

In 1971, Judge Mayer served as a law clerk for Judge John D. Butzner, Jr., of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Richmond, Virginia. He practiced law in Charlottesville, Virginia, in the mid-1970's, simultaneously serving as an adjunct at the University of Virginia School of Law, as he did again in the 1990's. He has also been an adjunct at George Washington University National Law Center.

From 1977 through 1980, Judge Mayer was the Special Assistant to the Chief Justice of the United States, Warren E. Burger, after which he returned to private law practice in Washington, D.C., until he became Deputy and Acting Special Counsel (by designation of the President).

President Ronald Reagan appointed Judge Mayer to what is now the United States Court of Federal Claims in 1982, and to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in 1987. He assumed senior status on June 30, 2010.