WHAT: Investiture of Lee Satterfield as the 6th Chief Judge of  the Superior Court of the District of Columbia 
 
WHERE: Atrium, Moultrie Courthouse – Third Floor, 500 Indiana Ave, NW 
 
WHEN: Wednesday, September 24, 2008 at 3:00 pm 
 
WHO: Chief Judge Rufus G. King III     Chief Judge-designate Lee F. Satterfield   DC Council Chair Vincent Gray     
 
Biography:  In November 1992, President George Bush appointed Judge Satterfield to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.  

Judge Satterfield was born in the District of Columbia. He graduated from St. John’s College High School in 1976.  He graduated from the University of Maryland in 1980 with a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and received his Juris Doctor from the George Washington University National Law Center in 1983.  

After law school, Judge Satterfield worked as a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Paul R. Webber, III, who was an Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.  In 1984, he was appointed an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia.  In that position, he served in the appellate, grand jury, misdemeanor and felony sections of the United States Attorney’s Office.  At the time he left the United States Attorney’s Office, he was prosecuting homicide and sex offense cases.   In September 1988, Judge Satterfield joined the law firm of Sachs, Greenebaum and Tayler.  While in private practice, he handled both civil and criminal matters in Superior Court and in the federal courts of Virginia, Maryland and Alabama.  In 1991, he left private practice and returned to the United States Department of Justice as a trial attorney in the Organized Crime and Racketeering Section.  

In that section, he handled organized crime and labor racketeering crimes in the federal courts of the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania, and Illinois.    In November 1992, President George Bush appointed Judge Satterfield to serve as an Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.  He has served in the Criminal, Civil and Family Divisions, and the Domestic Violence Unit.  In 1994, while serving in the Criminal Division, Judge Satterfield was one of the Court’s first Drug Court judges.   Between January 1998 and December 1999, Judge Satterfield served as Presiding Judge of the Domestic Violence Unit.  The Domestic Violence Unit was established in 1996 and handles criminal, intrafamily and domestic relations cases involving domestic violence.  As presiding judge, 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. During this time, Judge Satterfield 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.  In October 2001, Judge Satterfield was designated Presiding Judge of the Court’s Family Division.  After the enactment of the District of Columbia Family Court Act of 2001 in January 2002, Judge Satterfield was designated Presiding Judge of the Family Court.  In this capacity, Judge Satterfield handled the administrative functions of the Family Court, which included chairing the following Family Court committees:  the Family Court Management and Oversight Committee, the Family Court Implementation Committee, and the Family Court Advisory Rules Committee.  

He held the position of Presiding Judge until December 31, 2005.  While presiding judge, he served on several mayoral committees addressing issues related to mental health, child welfare, and juvenile justice such as the Juvenile Justice Reform Task Force on which he served as Vice Chairperson. He also served as Co-Chair of the Juvenile Detention Alternative Initiative Committee.  He also served as Co-Chair of the Citywide Truancy Task Force which launched a Middle School Truancy Court Diversion Program in a District of Columbia Public School in the fall of 2005. 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.  

Judge Satterfield was a member of the Superior Court’s Strategic Planning Leadership Council and the Superior Court Rules Committee.  He currently serves on numerous court committees, including the Court’s Committee on Judicial Education and Committee on the Selection and Tenure of Magistrate Judges. Since 1991, Judge Satterfield has been an adjunct professor at the Catholic University Columbus School of Law where he taught Criminal Trial Practice and currently teaches Advanced Criminal Procedure.  

He was a professorial lecturer in the L.L.M. litigation program at the George Washington University National Law Center for four years.  Judge Satterfield has been involved in numerous legal organizations such as the Charles Fahey Inn of Court, the Judicial Council of the Washington Bar Association and the Barristers.  He also has participated in many community programs such as the United States Attorney’s Office Drug Awareness Program, which was presented in the District of Columbia Public Schools, and the Northstar tutorial program for public school students.  

He was a member of the board of directors of the Frederick B. Abramson Memorial Foundation and the Robert A. Shuker Memorial Foundation, two foundations that help local college and law school students pursue higher education and careers in public interest law. Judge Lee F. Satterfield is a member of the Joint Committee on Judicial Administration, which is the policy-making body of the DC Courts.