The District of Columbia Judicial Nomination Commission (“Commission”) has forwarded to President Barack Obama the names of six lawyers for his consideration in selecting nominees to fill the judicial vacancies on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia created by the retirements of Hon. Ann O’Regan Keary and Hon. Harold L. Cushenberry, Jr.  The President has sixty (60) days to select a nominee to fill each vacancy.

The Commission recommends the following candidates to fill Judge Keary’s vacancy:

Mark D. Back, Esq. serves as General Counsel for the District of Columbia’s Department on Disability Services, a cabinet-level agency he helped create in 2006 to transform services for District residents with intellectual and developmental disabilities and facilitate exiting the Evans federal class action.  Mr. Back has served District residents for 23 years in various positions within the Office of the Attorney General (formerly Office of the Corporation Counsel), and one year as Deputy General Counsel for the DC Lottery.  His work has involved Child Support Enforcement, Youth Rehabilitation, and juvenile justice. Mr. Back has appeared before the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, the US District Court, the District of Columbia Contract Appeals Board, and other administrative tribunals. Mr. Back was in private practice in the District of Columbia prior to his government service.  Mr. Back taught administrative law and District of Columbia Courts practice to new District of Columbia Bar admittees. He received his undergraduate degree, magna cum laude, from the University of Cincinnati, and his Juris Doctor from the George Washington University Law School.  Mr. Back is also a Certified Public Manager.

Ralph C. Ferrara, Esq. is a partner with the DC office of Proskauer Rose, LLP.  His practice includes a wide range of litigation, business regulatory and corporate governance matters. Mr. Ferrara represents corporations and individuals in complex securities class and shareholder derivative actions, advises corporate clients on Securities and Exchange Commission reporting and disclosures requirements, represents corporations and individuals in government investigations and enforcement proceedings, conducts corporate internal investigations, handles consumer financial services issues and counsels corporate officers and boards on all of these matters. Mr. Ferrara has argued on five occasions before the US Supreme Court  and has represented clients in state and federal courts across the country.  Mr. Ferrara also served as General Counsel of the Securities and Exchange Commission from 1978-1981.Mr. Ferrara received his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University, a Juris Doctor from the University of Cincinnati College of Law and an L.L.M., summa cum laude, from the George Washington University Law School (then known as the National Law Center).

Hon. Elizabeth C. Wingo  is a Magistrate Judge on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia where since 2006, she has served in the Civil Division, the Criminal Division, the Family Court, and the Domestic Violence Unit. Magistrate Judge Wingo has presided over numerous trials in both civil and criminal cases, arraignments and detention hearings in both adult and juvenile cases, and temporary protection order and child support hearings. Prior to joining the Court, she served as the Assistant Deputy Attorney General for Public Safety in the Office of the Attorney General of the District of Columbia, where she had previously served as the Chief of the Criminal Section. Before joining the Office of the Attorney General, Magistrate Judge Wingo was an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Columbia, where she prosecuted a wide variety of crimes, including homicides and sexual assaults, and tried more than 50 cases. Before serving as an Assistant United States Attorney, she worked in private practice in the District of Columbia.  Magistrate Judge Wingo received her undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College and her Juris Doctor from Yale Law School. Following law school, she clerked for the Honorable T.S. Ellis, III, in the United States District Court of the Eastern District of Virginia.

The Commission recommends the following individuals to fill Judge Cushenberry’s vacancy:

Alan R. Burch, Esq. serves as Assistant Appellate Counsel in the Civil Division of the US Attorney’s Office in Washington, DC, having joined the Office in 1993. He defends a wide variety of claims against federal agencies and officials and has argued dozens of appeals before the District of Columbia Circuit and other appellate courts. From 1994 to 2003, Mr. Burch worked in the Enforcement & Compliance Division of the Treasury Department’s Office of the Comptroller of the Currency investigating and litigating administrative actions involving violations of banking law and anti-discrimination and consumer protection regulations. Mr. Burch received an undergraduate degree from the University of Washington and a diplome semestriel  from the Sorbonne.  He earned a master’s degree in history from the University of Virginia, and a Juris Doctor from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he served as Articles Editor for the Virginia Environmental Law Journal.

Lee W. Jackson, Esq. is Counsel at James & Hoffman P.C. Before joining that firm, Mr. Jackson was a Principal and then Counsel at O’Donnell, Schwartz & Anderson, P.C., where he represented international and local unions and their members before local, state, and federal courts and agencies. He started his career as a Field Attorney for the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) in New Orleans, and, in 1978, became an attorney in the NLRB’s  Office of General Counsel in Washington, DC, where he represented the agency in actions to enforce Board Orders in Federal Circuit Courts, and in contempt litigation before Special Masters appointed by the federal courts. Mr. Jackson was in private practice in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 1982 until 1991, representing clients including teachers, blue and white collar employees, firefighters, and newspaper reporters. Mr. Jackson received his undergraduate degree, with honors, from Jackson State College, and earned his Juris Doctor, with honors, at the George Washington University Law School.

Jason D. Tulley, Esq. is Special Counsel to the Director of the Public Defender Service of the District of Columbia. As Special Counsel, he heads the agency’s Forensic Practice Group, which focuses on litigation of science issues, including DNA evidence, fingerprints, and the psychology of eyewitness identification. He is also the Vice-Chair of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers’ Forensic Science Committee, which works on a variety of national issues related to scientifically sound forensic practices and education for the defense bar in all forensic disciplines. Mr. Tulley joined the Public Defender Service in 2003 and during his tenure has represented indigent criminal defendants in a wide range of major felony cases. From 2000 to 2003, Mr. Tulley was a Deputy Capital Defender for the Capital Defender Office in New York City, where he represented indigent defendants in capital cases. From 1996 to 2000, he worked in private practice in Baltimore, Maryland. Mr. Tulley received his undergraduate degree with Honors in Sociology from the State University of New York at Binghamton and earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Maryland School of Law. Following law school, Mr. Tulley served as a law clerk for the Honorable Theodore G. Bloom of the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland.

Please direct any questions to the Commission’s Executive Director at (202) 879-0478 or [email protected].