The District of Columbia Judicial Nomination Commission (JNC) forwarded the names of three lawyers to the White House for the consideration of President George W. Bush. The president will select a nominee for a vacancy on the District of Columbia Superior Court. The vacancy was created by the appointment of the Honorable Anna Blackburne-Rigsby to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. The president has 60 days to select a nominee for the vacancy.
           
The Judicial Nomination Commission recommends the following three candidates to fill the vacancy:

Anthony C. Epstein, age 54, is a partner at Steptoe & Johnson LLP. Epstein maintains a general litigation practice, handling a broad range of civil and criminal cases, administrative law matters, and pro bono cases. Among his DC Bar activities, he was vice chair of the Rules of Professional Conduct Review Committee, which developed a comprehensive overhaul of the DC legal ethics rules recently adopted by the Court of Appeals, and he was a member of the Multi-jurisdictional Practice Committee. Earlier in his career, Epstein served in the US Department of Justice (DOJ) in the Office of the Deputy Attorney General, in the Antitrust Division, and in the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Epstein received his law degree from Yale Law School in 1977 and his undergraduate degree from Yale College in 1974.

Heidi M. Pasichow, age 51, joined the Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia as an assistant United States attorney in 1986. In her current position in the Homicide Section, Pasichow investigates and prosecutes “cold cases”. Pasichow has also served as chief of the Violent Crime Section and as deputy chief of the Homicide Section. She served as special counsel for Professional Development in the Superior Court Division, and worked with the US Attorney to expand the office’s community prosecution efforts citywide. She is a faculty member teaching advocacy skills for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy. She served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Sylvia Bacon of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Pasichow received her professional law degree (juris doctor) from the Washington College of Law, American University in 1981, and her Bachelor of Arts in 1977 from The George Washington University.

Edward J. Ungvarsky, age 38, is special counsel to the director at the Public Defender Service (PDS) for the District of Columbia where he manages the divisions that support the rehabilitation of defendants and represent DC residents hospitalized for mental illness. In addition, he serves as director of the forensic practice group. Before being appointed special counsel in 2003, Ungvarsky served as a trial attorney, then a supervising attorney in the Serious Felony Section of the Trial Division of PDS. Prior to service at PDS, Ungvarsky was an appellate attorney in New York and Arizona. He has lectured and published widely on matters related to trial practice, expert testimony, and scientific evidence. From 1993 to 1994, he served as a law clerk to the Honorable Frank M. Johnson Jr., of the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Montgomery, Alabama. He is a volunteer with and fundraiser for the Bridges Public Charter School, a special-needs focused preschool located in the Petworth neighborhood of the District of Columbia. Ungvarsky received his Bachelor of Arts from Wesleyan University in 1990 and his professional law degree (juris doctor) from Yale Law School in 1993.