Hon. Frederick H. Weisberg

Judge Frederick H. Weisberg was appointed to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in 1977 by President Jimmy Carter, was reappointed to a second fifteen- year term in 1992 by President George H.W. Bush and was appointed to serve a third fifteen year term in 2007 by President George W. Bush.

Judge Weisberg graduated from Cornell University with honors in 1965, and he received his law degree, cum laude, in 1968 from the University of Michigan, where he was Notes and Comments Editor of the Michigan Law Review.

Following graduation from law school, Judge Weisberg entered an Office of Economic Opportunity lawyers’ program, sponsored jointly by VISTA and the New York University Law School. In connection with that program, Judge Weisberg represented indigent residents of Brooklyn, New York in a variety of civil matters and concurrently earned an LL.M. degree in Urban Law from NYU Law School.

In 1970, Judge Weisberg came to Washington, DC as a staff attorney for the Public Defender Service (PDS). During his first three years at PDS, he was on the trial staff, representing juveniles and indigent criminal defendants in both the Superior Court and the United States District Court. In 1973, Judge Weisberg joined the appellate staff of PDS, becoming the Chief of the Appellate Division in 1974. As Chief, he supervised all of the appeals handled by PDS attorneys in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals and the United States Court of Appeals and, at the same time, litigated his own cases in both Courts as well as in the United States Supreme Court.

Judge Weisberg served as the Presiding Judge of the Criminal Division from 1989 to 1995. He was a member of the Sentencing Guidelines Commission and served as its Chairman from 1987 until it was dissolved in 1992. He currently serves as Chairman of the District of Columbia Sentencing Commission. During his tenure on the Superior Court, Judge Weisberg has served in every Division of the Court other than Tax and Probate.