President-elect Barack Obama's first judicial nomination could be a spot on D.C. Superior Court, where 26 lawyers are vying for a vacancy created when Judge Linda Turner announced her retirement effective Dec. 5.
The D.C. Judicial Nomination Commission is seeking public comment on the fitness of the applicants, a group that includes nine D.C. Superior Court magistrate judges, a law professor, Justice Department trial lawyers, and several D.C. solo practitioners.
Turner, a former assistant U.S. attorney, was appointed to the bench in 1990 by President George H. W. Bush. Turner chaired the domestic violence rules advisory committee and the committee on selection and tenure of magistrate judges.
Comments should be sent to the JNC by Jan. 14 via e-mail at dc.jnc@dc.gov and to each of the commission members: U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan (pictured at right), chairman of the JNC; Arnold & Porter partner Brooksley Born; Natalie Ludaway of Leftwich & Ludaway; William Lucy, AFL-CIO general counsel; Venable managing partner Karl Racine; Rev. Morris Shearin of Israel Baptist Church; and Wiley Rein partner Helgi Walker. Contact information for JNC members is here.
Comments are confidential and will not be released to the public. The JNC will make three recommendations to the White House. The Senate must confirm the president's nomination.
The list of applicants:
- Diane Brenneman (Superior Court magistrate judge)
- Claudia Crichlow (administrative law judge, D.C. Office of Administrative Hearings)
- Marisa Demeo (Superior Court magistrate judge)
- Diana Epps (Superior Court magistrate judge)
- Daniel Friedman (U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, director of training)
- Elizabeth Gere (Ross, Dixon & Bell partner)
- Sharon Goodie (administrative law judge, D.C. Office of Administrative Hearings
- Jeffrey Gutman (professor of clinical law at George Washington University Law School)
- Karen Howze (Superior Court magistrate judge)
- Noel Johnson (Superior Court magistrate judge)
- Dorsey Jones Jr. (Law Offices of Dorsey Jones Jr.)
- Je Yon Jung (Justice Department, trial lawyer)
- Russell Kinner (Justice Department, civil division)
- Sharon Larkin (U.S. Government Accountability Office, deputy assistant general counsel
- Richard Love (Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, senior assistant attorney general)
- John McCabe Jr. (Superior Court magistrate judge)
- Aida Melendez (Superior Court magistrate judge)
- Craig Moore (attorney at law)
- William Nooter (Superior Court magistrate judge)
- Lloyd Nolan Jr. (Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia)
- Florence Pan (assistant U.S. attorney)
- Lori Parker (Superior Court magistrate judge)
- Elizabeth Shapiro (Justice Department civil division)
- Mary Ann Snow (Justice Department, trial attorney)
- Vytas Vergeer (Bread for the City, legal clinic director)
- Richard Wilson Sr. (Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, tax, bankruptcy, and finance section
Five applicants who applied for a recent vacancy —created when Superior Court Judge Rufus King III took senior status—did not resume their effort this time around to get a seat on the bench.
Those applicants were: Mark Dubester, assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia; Teresa Howie, assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia; Leonard Long Jr., Law Offices of Leonard L. Long Jr.; Maria Raffinan, Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia; and Edward Ungvarsky, Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia.
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