Washington Lawyer - January/February 2025 - 14

FEATURE
A Native Son of D.C.,
Chief Judge Milton Lee
Gavels for Service
Interview by Jeremy Conrad
N
ew Superior Court of the District of Columbia Chief
Judge Milton C. Lee Jr. is proud to call himself " truly a son
of the city. "
Born and raised in the District by parents who were committed to education, Lee went
to the city's public schools, earned his bachelor's degree from American University, and
received his juris doctor from Catholic University of America's Columbus School of Law.
" My dad taught in the public schools here for almost 35 years. Before the end of his career,
he transitioned over to Howard University and was teaching in the history department, "
Lee says. Lee's mother also worked in the District's public school system, and later in the
drama department at Howard.
With two much older siblings, Lee grew up feeling like an only child. " I had a really typical
upbringing, for that time period, " says Lee.
Straight out of law school, Lee began devoting his career to serving the District, starting
as a trial attorney with the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia and then
teaching at Georgetown University Law Center's Criminal Justice Clinic and at the former
District of Columbia School of Law's Juvenile Law Clinic before joining D.C. Superior Court
as a magistrate judge in 1997.
With nearly three decades of service on the bench, Lee is deeply familiar with the challenges
facing the District's trial court. And when he assumed the office of chief judge on October
1, 2024, Lee inherited a lingering crisis with no imminent fix: rising caseloads compounded
by Congress's continuing failure to expeditiously approve nominees to fill the
court's vacancies.
But Lee is also leading D.C. Superior Court at a time when it's making significant progress
on projects to improve facilities, services, and technology to better serve litigants. Washington
Lawyer sat down with Chief Judge Lee to talk about his background, his vision for the
court, and why he's invested in changing the lives of people being served by it.
What experiences have impacted the course of your career as an attorney?
I went to undergrad here. I studied at the American University School of Justice, and during
that time I interned at the Public Defender Service, and I got the bug. I went to Catholic
University for law school. I decided I wanted to be a public defender, and I was really fortunate
because they hired me right when I came out of law school.
It was incredibly demanding work, but it was also very rewarding ... [but] not in terms of
wins and losses in the court. It's the contact that you make on the human side with the
people you are representing. The Public Defender Service is just a phenomenal institution
in terms of its approach to client representation. That's why it has been, and continues to
be, a model for the rest of the country.
14 WASHINGTON LAWYER
* JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2025
Photos by Jati Lindsay
Washington Lawyer - January/February 2025

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