WASHINGTON - The District of Columbia Judicial Nomination Commission just announced that DC Court of Appeals Judge Anna Blackburne-Rigsby will be the court’s next chief judge, taking on that role when current Chief

Judge Eric T. Washington steps down in March. Judge Blackburne-Rigsby has served on the DC Court bench for 21 years. In 2006, President George W. Bush appointed Judge Blackburne-Rigsby to the DC Court of Appeals. She previously served in DC Superior Court for six years as an associate judge and five years as a magistrate judge. Judge Blackburne-Rigsby chairs the DC Courts’ Standing Committee on Fairness and Access and serves as Co-Chair of the District of Columbia’s Access to Justice Commission. She is past-president of the National Association of Women Judges and currently serves on the Board of Managerial Trustees for the International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ).

Judge Blackburne-Rigsby graduated from Duke University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and earned her law degree from Howard University Law School, graduating in the top five percent of her class. She served as the Lead Articles Editor of the Howard Law Journal and Co-Captain of the Charles Hamilton Houston Moot Court Team.

Following law school, Judge Blackburne-Rigsby was an associate at the law firm of Hogan Lovells US LLP (formerly Hogan and Hartson) in Washington, DC, where she litigated commercial, real estate, employment discrimination, and education matters before state and federal courts and administrative agencies. Judge Blackburne-Rigsby later joined the DC Office of the Corporation Counsel (now Office of the DC Attorney General), where she served as Special Counsel and as Deputy Corporation Counsel in charge of the Family Services Division, managing 65 attorneys and support staff, responsible for child abuse and neglect, child support enforcement, and domestic violence cases.

Judge Blackburne-Rigsby has taught Trial Advocacy at the Harvard Law School and teaches Professional Responsibility as an Adjunct Professor at the UDC David A. Clarke School of Law. She has also taught Continuing Legal Education courses for the District of Columbia Bar.

Judge Blackburne-Rigsby has received numerous awards for her legal, judicial and community service. She is married to Judge Robert Rigsby, Associate Judge on the DC Superior Court, former Corporation Counsel for the District of Columbia, and a Colonel and Military Judge in the United States Army Reserves.