Judge Livingston was appointed United States Circuit Judge for the Second Circuit on May 17, 2007, entered on duty June 1, 2007, and became Chief Judge on September 1, 2020. She received her B.A., magna cum laude, in 1980 from Princeton University, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. She received her J.D., magna cum laude, in 1984 from Harvard Law School, where she was an editor on the Harvard Law Review. Following law school, she served as a law clerk to Judge J. Edward Lumbard of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Judge Livingston was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York from 1986 to 1991, where she served as a Deputy Chief of Appeals in the Criminal Division. She was an associate with the New York law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison from 1985 to 1986 and again from 1991 to 1992, when she elected to pursue an academic career. Judge Livingston was a member of the University of Michigan's Law School faculty from 1992 until 1994 and was there awarded the L. Hart Wright Award for excellence in teaching.

Judge Livingston joined the Columbia Law School faculty in 1994 and has taught there since. At the time of her appointment to the Second Circuit, she was the Paul J. Kellner Professor of Law at Columbia, where she also served as Vice Dean. Judge Livingston is a co- author of the casebook, Comprehensive Criminal Procedure, and has published numerous academic articles on legal topics. She has taught courses in evidence, criminal law and procedure, and national security and terrorism. Judge Livingston has served on the Judicial Conference's Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Evidence and, from October 2017 to October 2020, she chaired the Advisory Committee. From 1994 to 2003, Judge Livingston was a Commissioner on New York City's Civilian Complaint Review Board. Judge Livingston is a recipient of Columbia's Wien Prize for Social Responsibility. She received the Learned Hand Medal for excellence in jurisprudence of the Federal Bar Council in 2021.