Judge Milton Lee named new chief of D.C. Superior Court

District native Milton C. Lee Jr. was named the D.C. Superior Court’s newest chief judge on Friday, positioning him atop the busiest court in the nation’s capital as the judiciary confronts vacant judgeships, a backlog of criminal cases and a shortage of court-appointed, private attorneys to represent indigent clients.

A graduate of the Columbus School of Law at Catholic University and former lawyer with the District’s Public Defender Service, Lee, 64, was first appointed to the bench in 2010 by President Barack Obama. Lee sought the role in 2020 but was defeated by Anita Josey-Herring, who announced this spring that she would not pursue a second four-year term.

He will assume the new post Oct. 1.

Lee was selected by the seven-person Judicial Nomination Commission, which is composed of District residents and attorneys including U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, former acting U.S. Attorney for the District Vincent H. Cohen Jr., Marie C. Johns, former Small Business Administration deputy administrator, and former city council member Linda W. Cropp.

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In a statement, the group said it reviewed more than 300 letters, evaluations and calls from individuals and organizations about the choice between Lee and his colleague, Judge Marisa J. Demeo, a former federal prosecutor in the District who also vied for the position.

The committee said its members also “took into consideration each candidate’s experience, qualifications, judicial temperament, interest and experience in Court administration, ethics, commitment to diversity, leadership skills, ability to advocate for and promote confidence in the judicial system, intellectual leadership, and vision for the Superior Court, including plans for addressing the unique challenges facing the Court in the coming years.”

With 90 courtrooms spread among three buildings in the Judiciary Square downtown neighborhood of Northwest Washington, the Superior Court has about 10,000 visitors each weekday for criminal, civil and family court as well as marriages and licenses.

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The job of chief judge, which comes with a salary increase of $500 per year, will position Lee to influence the direction of the court and the careers of its judges. The chief is tasked with assigning judges to divisions, deciding who hears high-profile cases, landlord and tenant issues, or child custody battles.

Lee initially worked as a magistrate judge in the courthouse in 1998 before his appointment by Obama. As a judge, he has worked in the court’s civil, criminal and family court and served as a presiding judge from 2018 to 2019.

He also developed the teen court diversion program and spearheaded the creation of Fathering Court in 2007 while he was a magistrate. The program aligns the court with city agencies in training young men in the District — many of whom had been incarcerated — to become stronger fathers and reuniting families.

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Lee has also repeatedly used his position as judge to scrutinize the city’s mental-health-care system. At several criminal hearings involving defendants with mental illnesses, often ordering leaders from St. Elizabeths, the District’s psychiatric hospital, as well as from the city’s Department of Behavioral Health, to appear in court before him and explain the treatment of patients charged in crimes.

Since the pandemic, the court has struggled with a backlog of cases, a backlog that became even more challenging due to the court being short-staffed on the bench. In recent years, the court had as many as a dozen judicial vacancies. With recent Senate confirmations this year, the number of vacancies has been reduced to eight with six judicial appointments still pending in the Senate, according to a court spokesman.

In addition to the vacancies, the court is also struggling with attracting private defense attorneys to represent clients who are unable to pay for lawyers as part of the court’s Criminal Justice Act panel. Currently the panel consists of about 139 attorneys, compared with about 200 lawyers about five years ago, the group’s president, Todd Baldwin, said.

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