Eighteen Washington attorneys, magistrate judges and administrative law judges are hoping to become the next District of Columbia Superior Court judge.
The local group that recommends applicants to the White House, the District of Columbia Judicial Nomination Commission, released the names last week of lawyers who applied to replace retiring Judge Natalia Combs Greene. Greene is retiring effective September 30 and has asked for appointment as a senior judge.
The commission is accepting public comments on the applicants through September 23. The seven-member commission will recommend three applicants for consideration by President Barack Obama, who then has 60 days to select a nominee. The president's pick will go before the U.S. Senate for confirmation proceedings.
The latest group of applicants included Andrew Fois, the deputy attorney general for public safety in the city's Office of the Attorney General, and two lawyers from the U.S. Attorney's Office, Fernando Campoamor-Sanchez, an assistant U.S. attorney in the national security section, and Teresa Ann Howie, deputy chief of the Superior Court division.
From the Public Defender Service of the District of Columbia, lawyers Sherry Trafford, a staff attorney in the mental health division, and Jason Tulley, special counsel to the director, applied.
Eight magistrate judges and administrate law judges applied. The Superior Court magistrate judge applicants were Errol Arthur, Rainey Brandt, Karen Howze, Elizabeth Mullin and Elizabeth Wingo. Brandt was nominated last year and testified before a Senate committee, but the Senate returned her nomination to the White House at the end of last year before taking action.
Sharon Goodie and Paul Handy, who are administrative law judges in the city's Office of Administrative Hearings, and Leslie Meek, an administrative law judge for the city's Department of Employment Services, also applied.
Other applicants were Lydia Auzoux, senior associate general counsel for litigation at Howard University; solo practitioners Steven Berk and Guyler Hill; Theodore Metzler Jr., an attorney in the general counsel's office of the Federal Trade Commission; and Sean Staples, a project director at the Children's Law Center.
The nomination commission is led by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan. The group's other members are William Lucy, vice president of the AFL-CIO; Natalie Ludaway of Leftwich & Ludaway; Woody Peterson of Dickstein Shapiro; Venable's Karl Racine; the Rev. Morris Shearin Sr.; and Grace Speights of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius.
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