The newest member of the District of Columbia Superior Court bench, Associate Judge Jennifer Di Toro, was sworn in Friday afternoon at the courthouse.
Di Toro, who was nominated by President Obama in February, was confirmed in August by the U.S. Senate.
For the past seven years, Di Toro served as legal director of the Children's Law Center. She did white-collar defense work and civil litigation as an associate at Zuckerman Spaeder, and is also a former staff attorney for the city’s Public Defender Service.
Superior Court Chief Judge Lee Satterfield said during the ceremony that given Di Toro’s experience before the court as a defender, a private practice attorney and a civil legal services lawyer, she is “very ready for what she will take on.”
Finnegan pro bono counsel Barbara Butterworth, who first met Di Toro when the two were E. Barrett Prettyman fellows working at the Georgetown University Law Center’s Criminal Justice Clinic, said during her remarks that Di Toro is “the proverbial iron fist in a velvet glove.”
At the time of her confirmation, Di Toro became the third openly gay nominee to be confirmed to any court nationwide by executive appointment under the Obama administration, according to the Human Rights Campaign, which supported her nomination.
Yvonne Williams, who was also confirmed by the Senate as a Superior Court associate judge in August, is scheduled to be sworn-in in December.
Judge Jennifer Di Toro putting on her robe with help from family. At the top, Superior Court Judge Todd Edelman swearing in Di Toro.
National Law Journal photos by Diego M. Radzinschi.
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