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 On
Feb. 14, the U.S. Senate confirmed the nomination of Richard J. "Dick" Leon
of Maryland as U.S. District Court judge for the District of Columbia.
Nominated to the judgeship by President Bush in September, he received
his commission on Feb. 19.
During his career, Leon has spent many years in private practice and public
service. A partner in the Washington, D.C., law firm of Vorys, Sater, Seymour & Pease
from 1999 to 2002, he had previously been associated with the Washington,
D.C., office of Baker & Hostetler. In addition, Leon served as special
counsel, Ethics Reform Task Force, U.S. House of Representatives in 1997;
special counsel (Whitewater investigation), Banking, Finance & Urban
Affairs Committee, in 1994; and chief minority counsel, "October
Surprise" Task Force, Foreign Affairs Committee, U.S. House of Representatives,
1992-93. Previously, he had been deputy assistant attorney general, Environmental & Natural
Resources Division, U.S. House of Representatives, 1988-89; deputy chief
minority counsel, Select "Iran-Contra" Committee, U.S. House
of Representatives, 1987-88; and senior trial attorney, Tax Division, U.S.
Department of Justice, 1983-87. Assistant professor at St. John's
University School of Law from 1979 to 1983, Leon has been an adjunct professor
at Georgetown University School of Law from 1997 to the present.
At the start of his career, he had served as a law clerk for Chief Justice
Walter McLaughlin, Superior Court of Massachusetts, from 1974-75, and as
a law clerk for Thomas Kelleher, Supreme Court of Rhode Island, from 1975-76.
He had also been an attorney for the Immigration and Naturalization Service,
U.S. Department of Justice, from 1976-77, and special assistant U.S. attorney,
Civil Division, U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of New
York, from 1977-78.
Leon received his juris doctor in 1974 from Suffolk University Law School
in Boston and his LL.M. in 1979 from Harvard University Law School, Cambridge,
Mass.
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