President Obama Nominates Two as Associate Judges for the Superior Court of the District of Columbia

WASHINGTON, DC- Today, President Obama nominated Todd E. Edelman and Judge Judith Anne Smith as Associate Judges for the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.   Judge Smith currently serves as a magistrate judge on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.  Edelman is a Visiting Associate Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center.  

“I am proud to nominate these distinguished individuals to serve as Associate Judges on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia,” said President Obama. “Throughout their careers they have demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the pursuit of justice and dedication to the public good.  I am confident they will serve the District of Columbia with distinction.”

Todd E. Edelman: Nominee for the Superior Court of the District of Columbia

Todd Edelman is a Visiting Associate Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center.  From 2004 to 2008, he was Adjunct Professor of Law there while practicing at Bredhoff and Kaiser, P.L.L.C.  At Bredhoff, where he was Of Counsel from 2005 to 2008, Mr. Edelman represented  both plaintiffs and defendants in complex state and federal civil litigation  involving RICO, employment, labor law, employee benefit, and civil rights.  From 1997 to 2005, Mr. Edelman was a trial attorney with the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia where he served as lead counsel in dozens of felony trials, including homicides, conspiracies, and other serious crimes. Mr. Edelman became a trial supervisor in 2001, and was Chief of the agency’s Serious Felony Section from 2002 to 2004.  He served as the agency’s Training Director in 2004 and 2005.

Mr. Edelman graduated from Yale University in 1990 and the New York University School of Law in 1994, where he was a Root-Tilden Scholar.  After graduating from law school, Mr. Edelman served as a law clerk to the Honorable William B. Bryant of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, and then as an E. Barrett Prettyman Fellow in the Georgetown University Law Center’s Criminal Justice Clinic.

Judge Judith Anne Smith: Nominee for the Superior Court of the District of Columbia

Judge Smith is a magistrate judge on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, where she has presided over neglect and abuse matters.  Prior to her appointment in 2008, she was an Attorney Advisor in the District of Columbia’s Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE).  Before that, she was the Juvenile Services Program Coordinator for the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia, where she had previously served as a Staff Attorney and then the agency’s first Special Education Attorney from 1994 until 2001.  During her tenure as Special Education Attorney at the Public Defender Service, Judge Smith developed a unique practice combining special education and juvenile justice law.  From 2001 to 2007, Judge Smith was the Executive Director of Mediation and Compliance, and then Executive Director of Federal and Family Court Monitoring in the District of Columbia Public Schools Office of Special Education. 

Judge Smith earned her Bachelor’s degree from The Pennsylvania State University in 1985, and her Juris Doctorate from Georgetown University Law Center in 1992.  She served as a law clerk to the Honorable A. Franklin Burgess, Jr. of Superior Court of the District of Columbia.