The District of Columbia's judicial nomination commission today recommended to the White House three Washington lawyers who are vying to fill a vacancy on the D.C. Court of Appeals.
The commission recommended Corinne Ann Beckwith, Todd Kim and Walter Smith Jr. as the top candidates to replace Judge Inez Smith Reid, whose retirement takes effect in April. Reid has served on the appeals court, the highest local court in the District, since 1995.
President Barack Obama now has an opportunity to nominate a lawyer from the list.
Beckwith, an appellate lawyer with the D.C. Public Defender Service, and Smith, the executive director of D.C. Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, were among three finalists in 2008 to replace Judge Michael Farrell on the bench. Kim, the city’s solicitor general, is the District’s top appellate lawyer. Click here for more background on the three lawyers.
The District’s judicial commission picked Smith, Kim and Beckwith from eight candidates. That group included Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr partners Daniel Squire and Paul Wolfson, in addition to a Justice Department lawyer, Winsome Gayle.
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