WHAT:    Investiture of Judge Kelly A. Higashi
 
WHEN:   Friday, October 26 at 3:30 PM

WHERE: Moultrie Courthouse – Third Floor Atrium, 500 Indiana Avenue, NW, DC

WHO:      Chief Judge Robert Morin
                Senior Judge Frederick Weisberg
                Former US Attorney Channing Phillips
 

Biographical Information:

     Kelly A. Higashi was nominated by President Trump to be an Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia on February 5, 2018.  Her nomination was confirmed by the United States Senate on July 12, 2018. 

         Judge Higashi was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in History from the University of Pennsylvania and her Juris Doctor degree from the George Washington University School of Law.

         After law school, Judge Higashi served as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Frederick H. Weisberg of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia from 1992 to 1994.  In September 1994, Judge Higashi was sworn in as an Assistant United States Attorney in the District of Columbia, where she served for twenty four years until her appointment to the Superior Court bench.  For the last fifteen of those years, Judge Higashi served as the Chief of the U.S. Attorney's Office's Sex Offense and Domestic Violence Section.  In that capacity, Judge Higashi led thirty eight prosecutors who specialized in the prosecution, in both the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, of sexual assaults, domestic violence, child abuse, stalking, human trafficking, online child exploitation, and sex offender registration offenses.  Prior to that, Judge Higashi served as the Chief of the U.S. Attorney's Office's Misdemeanor Trial Section.  In that capacity, she was instrumental in the creation of several diversion programs for misdemeanor defendants, such as the Community Mediation Program, and she was part of the multi-disciplinary group which implemented the first Community Court pilot project.  

As an Assistant United States Attorney, Judge Higashi investigated and tried numerous criminal cases in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia and in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, including some of the most serious domestic violence and sexual assault cases involving both adult and child victims. Judge Higashi was the 2016 recipient of the United States Attorneys Association Harold Sullivan Award. She has also been awarded several United States Attorney's Awards for Special Achievement, the United States Attorney's Justice for Victims of Crime Award, the United States Attorney's Award for Excellence in Management, the United States Attorney's Award for Creativity and Innovation, and several Federal Bureau of Investigation, Washington Field Office Service Awards.  For several years, Judge Higashi was a member of the Superior Court's Domestic Violence Rules Advisory Committee.