Margaret J. Chriss, Esq., has served as Assistant United States Attorney at the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia since 2001. For the past five years, she has served as the Chief of the Special Proceedings Division, which handles post-conviction cases in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia and the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. During her tenure at the United States Attorney’s Office, Ms. Chriss has handled misdemeanor and felony trials and appellate matters. She has been the recipient of several Special Achievement Awards and a United States Attorney’s Team Award.
Before joining the United States Attorney’s Office, Ms. Chriss was a litigation associate at Nixon Peabody LLP for five years. Her caseload there involved complex insurance defense litigation, employment claims, and First Amendment matters, as well as white-collar cases.
Ms. Chriss graduated cum laude from Rice University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English. After graduation, she worked as a technical editor and writer with an environmental consulting firm. Ms. Chriss later earned her Juris Doctor with distinction from Emory University, College of Law. While in law school, she was an Articles Editor on the Emory Law Journal and a Dean’s Fellow in the Research, Writing and Advocacy Program. Following law school, Ms. Chriss served as a law clerk to the Honorable Judith E. Retchin on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.