The District of Columbia Commission on Judicial Disabilities and Tenure is reviewing a request by District of Columbia Court of Appeals Judge Vanessa Ruiz for senior status. Ruiz took retired status last August.
The commission is also considering requests for reappointment by District of Columbia Superior Court senior judges Leonard Braman and Henry Greene.
Attorneys and other members of the public can submit comments on the three judges to the commission through April 9.
Ruiz was appointed to the city’s highest court in 1994. Before joining the bench, Ruiz served as the city’s corporation counsel, now known as the attorney general, and co-founded the law firm Sloan, Lehner & Ruiz, which later merged with Pepper Hamilton.
As a member of the American Bar Association’s Standing Committee on Legal Aid and Indigent Defendants, Ruiz has led efforts over the past two years to craft new language-access standards for courts nationwide. The ABA’s House of Delegates adopted the new standards at its midyear meeting last month.
Braman was appointed to Superior Court in 1970 and took senior status in 1985. He began practicing law in 1952, serving as a law clerk to former Chief Judge E. Barrett Prettyman Sr. of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. Before joining the bench, Braman worked in private practice in Washington.
Greene was appointed to Superior Court in 1981 and took senior status in 2000. He clerked for former Chief Judge William Bryant of U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and served in the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington from 1968 until he joined the bench.
The National Law Journal recently reported that Judge Ruiz was by far the slowest judge on the D.C. Court of Appeals in deciding appeals -- can you post a link to that article? That dilatoriness should be a factor in considering her request.
Posted by: Jack Schwartz | March 08, 2012 at 07:27 AM