Washington Lawyer - January/February 2025 - 28

FEATURE
JUDGE LEE continued from page 15
You are also an outspoken advocate for increasing mental health
services in court. Can you expand on that a bit?
There are a lot of people who come through all parts of the court system
and have significant mental health issues. Some time ago, it might have
been 15 or 20 years ago, we created the Mental Health Community Court
because we recognized that we had people coming through here that
didn't have access to a mental health diagnosis.
The model for us was the Drug Court, which we had been doing since
the '90s and knew it worked, but we needed to get all our partners like
the Department of Behavioral Health, Pretrial Services Agency, [and]
CSOSA [Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency], which covers
probation. And we needed to get judges, prosecutors, and defense lawyers
sensitive to looking at cases beyond their legal aspect. The legal aspect
was bringing us together, but there's another factor, and if we can
solve that, maybe we won't see these people back in court with the
same amount of regularity. You know what Mental Health Court is? It's
a phenomenal success.
open slots ... 11 of them judicial vacancies. That's more than 20 percent
of the court's associate judge personnel.
So, one of the first tasks that I have as chief judge, and what I've been doing
since the announcement of my selection, is getting internal information
about operations. What are we really doing well, what do we need
to focus on? But my first major task is to do judicial assignments. I need
to get judges in seats across the calendar. I cannot fill every calendar that
we have available right now. It's not possible. We don't have enough
judge personnel to do this.
So, this is what you're going to see happen ... There will be calendars
that we have to collapse. I'll have to double up calendars. We just can't fill
the seats. We've already done that on the criminal side, and we're going
to have to continue to do that elsewhere. Judges on many calendars are,
right now, covering double the number of cases that they would traditionally
cover.
Most calendars historically have run at about 225 cases each on the civil
calendar. Most judges are now hovering around the mid-400s, and one
judge has around 500 cases. So, judges will be working beyond capacity,
while caseloads are rising. More people are being held because of Secure
DC, something the D.C. Council and the mayor felt that we had to
do to combat an unprecedented increase of violence in the city .... But it
puts more cases on the calendar. Judges are working at capacity. Branch
managers and administrators in the courthouse are working at capacity.
We aren't going to be able to work with the same efficiency that we've
always promoted and sought to achieve. What I need members of the
public to understand is that this is not an issue about how hard the court
is working. This court is not just a building; it's a living, breathing institution
made up of judges, managers, and staff. They can only work so hard
for so long, and they've been doing that for a while. We've got a great set
of partners across the justice landscape. We're going to continue partnering
and collaborating. We're going to see what we can do with less
because we have to.
Judge Milton Lee is sworn into office by his predecessor, Judge Anita
Josey-Herring, as his wife, Administrative Law Judge Claudia Crichlow, holds
the Bible.
COVID disrupted all of that. We've come out of COVID and we're back to
the drawing board. But we need to try to ramp up participation. That's
one of the things that is part of my vision.
Everybody is struggling with budgets, but I have this really downrange
view that if we help folks, beyond just the case that we have, in the end
we're going to save some money because we are not going to see them
with the same regularity. We'll be solving some problems, not just cases.
There are models that we know work. We just have to commit ourselves.
What do you see as your immediate challenges in your new role?
Here's the biggest challenge, and it is enormous. When Chief Judge
[Anita] Josey-Herring retired, she [had done] a phenomenal job getting
us through COVID, reimagining the court so she could hand it off in very
good shape. But, we're nine judges short. We've got two judges that
I know of who will retire within the year. That will take us to 11 [short].
Then, we've got two judges facing very serious illness. They are going
to need time to recuperate. That gives us a deficit of 13 judges. Thirteen
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* JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2025
What made you want to apply for the position of chief judge?
As a professional, I've grown up in Superior Court. Everything that I've
done as a professional, and as a lawyer, has touched this court in one
way or another. I've spent 27 years here as a judge. I couldn't be more
invested in this place. It is not [solely] a place of work for me.
When I talk about the people who work here ... we're colleagues, we're
members of the same project, we're family. I hope that I have changed
lives in the work that I've done, but the Superior Court, as an institution,
has changed my life. So, I owe it all that I have to give. I understand this
place. I've built relationships, and I want to build on that. I have a phenomenal
support system here, and that gives me comfort.
I believe that we collectively, as an institution, can do a lot for the citizens
of the District of Columbia, and because I've spent my life dedicated to
that, I want to end my career in a place where I think I can have the biggest
impact.
We have challenges, certainly, but I don't want anyone to take this as a
lack of optimism. I'm optimistic. I'm optimistic about the resiliency of the
people who work here, and I am proud to lead them. The only concern is
that I don't disappoint, and I don't think they'll let me do that.
Reach D.C. Bar staff writer Jeremy Conrad at jconrad@dcbar.org.
Washington Lawyer - January/February 2025

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