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 Superior Court of the District of Columbia. The President has sixty (60) days to select a nominee to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of the Honorable Linda D. Turner.

The Commission recommends the following three candidates to fill the vacancy:

Marisa J. Demeo is a Magistrate Judge on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Since 2007, she has served in the Criminal Division of the Court and has handled over seventy-five bench trials involving either criminal traffic or other minor misdemeanor charges. Prior to her appointment as a Magistrate Judge, she served as a criminal prosecutor for the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia where she tried forty-five cases. At the time she left the United States Attorney's Office, she was prosecuting serious domestic violence felony cases. Her previous public service includes serving as the Washington, DC, Regional Counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) and as an Honors Program Trial Attorney for the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division. Magistrate Judge Demeo's legal experience also includes teaching as an Adjunct Professor at Howard University School of Law, where she taught immigration law and criminal procedure. She has received numerous awards throughout her career. Magistrate Judge Demco received her undergraduate degree in Politics from Princeton University in 1988 and her law degree from New York University School of Law in 1993, where she served on the Law Review and was a Root-Tilden Scholar.

Elizabeth Sarah (Sally) Gere is a partner at Troutman Sanders LLP, where she has a diverse civil litigation practice. Prior to private practice, Ms. Gere served in the Criminal and Civil Divisions of the United States Department of Justice. She also was an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of Ohio. Ms. Gere served two terms on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals Committee on Admissions and two terms on a Hearing Committee of the Board on Professional Responsibility. She chaired the United States District Court Committee on Pro Se Litigation and currently is a member of the Court's Lawyer Counseling Panel. Ms. Gere is an Adjunct Professor at the Georgetown University Law Center. She received her law degree from George Washington University Law School and her undergraduate degree from Denison University. Following law school, Ms. Gere clerked for the Honorable June L. Green of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.

Florence Pan is an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. Since 2007, she has served as Deputy Chief of the Appellate Division, supervising criminal appeals in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals and in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. Prior to joining the Appellate Division, Ms. Pan prosecuted a wide variety of criminal cases in the United States District Court and in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Ms. Pan also currently serves as an Adjunct Professor of Law at American University’s Washington College of Law. Prior to joining the US Attorney's Office in 1999, Ms. Pan was a Senior Adviser to the Undersecretary for Domestic Finance at the US Department of the Treasury. She also previously worked at the US Department of Justice, first as a Bristow Fellow in the Office of the Solicitor General, and then as an attorney in the Criminal Appellate Section. Ms. Pan received her law degree from Stanford Law School in 1993, and two undergraduate degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in 1988. Following law school, she clerked for the Honorable Michael B. Mukasey, of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York; and for the Honorable Ralph K. Winter, of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.