The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia announced yesterday that Magistrate Judge Deborah Robinson has been reappointed to her fourth eight-year term, which will begin on July 18.
Chief Judge Royce Lamberth said Tuesday that the recommendation by the panel that considered Robinson's reappointment had positive things to say overall about the judge.
"I think there was a consensus of the lawyers that they talked to that she was always courteous and treats lawyers well in the courtroom," Lamberth said.
Robinson's tenure on the federal bench began in 1988, following eight years as an assistant United States attorney. Before that, she had served as a clerk for former D.C. Superior Court Chief Judge H. Carl Moultrie I.
Not long after she took to the bench, Robinson presided over the 1989 preliminary hearings in the case against Rayful Edmond III, the notorious leader of one of the city's largest drug gangs. Other high profile cases have included the 2005 guilty verdict against former National Security Advisor Sandy Berger for the unauthorized removal and destruction of classified information from the National Archives, and a 2007 decision not to revoke probation for former District Mayor Marion Barry.
Attorneys sitting on the panel that recommended her reappointment included chairman Henry Morris, Jr., a partner in Arent Fox's litigation and labor and employment practices; Koonz, McKenney, Johnson, DePaolis & Lightfoot personal injury partner Paulette Chapman; John Mannarino, deputy chief of the appellate division at the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia; Mary Lou Soller, a Miller & Chevalier member focused on complex litigation; Edward Sussman, a solo practitioner in the District; and Robert Tucker, an assistant federal public defender in Washington.
The panel also included two non-attorney community members, Ernestine Coghill-Howard and Gregory Davis.
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