The District of Columbia Judicial Nomination Commission (“Commission”) has forwarded to President Barack Obama the names of three lawyers for his consideration in selecting a nominee to fill a judicial vacancy on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. The President has sixty (60) days to select a nominee to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Vanessa Ruiz. The Commission recommends the following candidates to fill this vacancy:
Geoffrey Morris Klineberg is a member of the law firm of Kellogg, Huber, Hansen, Todd, Evans & Figel, P.L.L.C. He practices primarily in the areas of administrative law and appellate litigation, representing clients in matters before the Federal Communications Commission, as well as before the Supreme Court and various federal district and appellate courts. Mr. Klineberg also advises clients on the applicability of the Rules of Professional Conduct, having served for seven years on the District of Columbia Bar Legal Ethics Committee, including three years as Chair. From 1993 to 1995, Mr. Klineberg served as Special Assistant, serving two Deputy Attorneys General, at the United States Department of Justice, where he worked on criminal justice reform and professional conduct issues. Mr. Klineberg has a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations magna cum laude from Princeton University and a Masters of Philosophy degree in International Relations with distinction from Balliol College, Oxford University. He earned his law degree from Yale University and was an Articles Editor on the Yale Law Journal. Following law school, Mr. Klineberg served as a law clerk for the Honorable José A. Cabranes of the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut; then for the Honorable Patricia M. Wald of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit; and then for Associate Justice Harry A. Blackmun on the Supreme Court of the United States.
Honorable Neal Elliott Kravitz is an Associate Judge on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. He is currently assigned to the Domestic Relations calendar in the Family Court, having served previously in the Civil and Criminal Divisions. He is a member of the Standing Committee on Fairness and Access to the District of Columbia Courts, the Superior Court Rules Committee, the Landlord-Tenant Advisory Rules Subcommittee, the Family Court Rules Advisory Committee, and the Adoption Rules Advisory Subcommittee. He has sat by designation on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals on several occasions. Before joining the Superior Court in 1998, Judge Kravitz served as counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights at the United States Department of Justice, as Principal Deputy Democratic Special Counsel to the United States Senate Whitewater Committee, and as a Special Investigative Counsel to the United States Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs. Judge Kravitz was also the Executive Director for the New Hampshire Public Defender and worked as a staff attorney at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia. Judge Kravitz has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Music from Yale College and earned his law degree from Harvard Law School. Following law school, Judge Kravitz served as a law clerk for the Honorable Henry A. Politz of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Roy Wallace McLeese III is the Chief of the Appellate Division in the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, having served as a Deputy Chief from 1990 to 2005. In this capacity, he supervises criminal appellate litigation in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals and the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Mr. McLeese also served in the Office of the Solicitor General of the United States from 1997 to 1999 as an Assistant to the Solicitor General, and temporarily served as Acting Deputy Solicitor General, supervising the criminal appellate litigation of the United States in the Supreme Court of the United States. Mr. McLeese has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy cum laude from Harvard University and earned his law degree cum laude from New York University School of Law, where he was Editor-in-Chief of the New York University Law Review. Following law school, Mr. McLeese served as a law clerk for then-Judge Antonin Scalia of the United States Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia Circuit, and then for Associate Justice Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court of the United States.
Questions concerning the District of Columbia Judicial Nomination Commission should be directed to the Executive Director at (202) 879-0478 or via email at [email protected].