Milton C. Lee was sworn in as the new D.C. Superior Court Chief Judge on Oct. 1.
Anita Josey-Herring, who served as the chief judge from 2020 to Sept. 30, administered the oath. Lee takes the top judicial position in the city’s trial court just under 26 years after taking the bench as a magistrate judge on the Superior Court.
Lee is a District native who received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the American University in 1982 and his Juris Doctorate from the Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law in 1985.
Lee practiced law for many years for the D.C. Public Defender Service as an attorney in the Family, Misdemeanor, and Felony Divisions of the Superior Court. He also argued appeals before the D.C. Court of Appeals on behalf of agency clients.
Lee has worked as a legal educator for the Georgetown University School of Law, the former District of Columbia School of Law, the David A. Clarke School of Law at the University of the District of Columbia and the Howard University School of Law.
Lee became a Magistrate Judge in November 1998. He was appointed as a Superior Court Associate Judge in 2010 by President Obama.
In 2016, Judge Lee was appointed to the District of Columbia Sentencing Commission and served as the Chair from 2018 until his appointment as Chief Judge.