Honorable Lee F. Satterfield was appointed in November 1992 by President George Bush to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia and sworn-in as the Chief Judge in September 2008. Chief Judge Satterfield was born in the District of Columbia. He graduated from St. John’s College High School, the University of Maryland with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and received his Juris Doctor from the George Washington University National Law Center.

Chief Judge Satterfield began his law career as a judicial law clerk to Associate Judge Paul R. Webber, III, in the District of Columbia Superior Court and as an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. He also joined a private practice of law and worked for the United States Department of Justice. Once becoming an Associate Judge, he served in the Criminal, Civil and Family Divisions, and the Domestic Violence Unit. He has previously served as the Presiding Judge for the Domestic Violence Unit and the Family Court. During the time he was Presiding Judge of the Domestic Violence Unit, he chaired the Domestic Violence Unit’s Implementation Group, the Domestic Violence Coordinating Council, and the Domestic Violence Advisory Rules Committee, which created new rules governing domestic violence cases in the Unit. Simultaneously, Judge Satterfield also served as a member of a National Advisory Committee on Domestic Violence, which developed model guidelines for the creation and operation of domestic violence courts.

Chief Judge Satterfield has served as a Lead Judge in the Model Court Initiative of the National

Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the

NCJFCJ and is a member of the National Judicial Institute on Domestic Violence’s Steering

Committee and faculty. Chief Judge Satterfield is a member of the Joint Committee on Judicial Administration, which is the policy-making body of the District of Columbia Courts.