Please join the LGBT Bar Association of the District of Columbia and Steptoe & Johnson LLP for our annual Pride Reception on Wednesday, July 13 at 6pm. This year, our theme is Celebrating Diversity in the Legal Profession and we have three fantastic LGBTQ+ judges that will explore the importance of diversity on the bench, in the courtroom, and across our profession:
- Judge Marisa Demeo of the D.C. Superior Court
- Chief Judge Elaine Kaplan of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims
- Judge John Thomas Rooney (ret.)
The panel will be followed by a social reception. We hope you can join us!
Space is limited, so please RSVP today!
If confirmed to attend, we will email you arrival details.
Panelist information
Judge Elaine D. Kaplan was appointed Judge of the United States Court of Federal Claims on November 1, 2013. On March 2, 2021, President Biden designated her as Chief Judge. Judge Kaplan joined the court after serving as the Acting Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Prior to being designated Acting Director in April 2013, she had served as OPM’s General Counsel, a position to which she was appointed in 2009. Judge Kaplan began her legal career in the Solicitor’s Office of the U.S. Department of Labor, first in the Employee Benefits Division and then in the Division of Special Appellate and Supreme Court Litigation.
Between 1984 and 1998, she litigated and supervised the litigation of cases at all levels of the federal court system as an attorney at the National Treasury Employees Union, an organization to which she returned in 2004 as Senior Deputy General Counsel. In 1998, Judge Kaplan was nominated by President Clinton and confirmed by the Senate to serve a five-year term as the head of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, an independent agency whose mission is to protect the merit-based civil service. From 2003 to 2004, Judge Kaplan was “of counsel” to Bernabei and Katz, a nationally recognized plaintiff’s side employment law and civil rights firm. Judge Kaplan has appeared frequently at national and international conferences to speak on issues related to the merit-based civil service and whistleblower protection; she has authored several articles on these and related subjects.
Between 2004 and 2011, she was a member of the adjunct faculty of American University’s School of Public Administration, teaching graduate-level classes covering legal issues that arise in the context of public administration, with an emphasis on constitutional law. A native of Brooklyn, New York, Judge Kaplan earned a J.D., cum laude, from Georgetown University in 1979, and a bachelor’s degree in history from the State University of New York in Binghamton in 1976.
Judge Marisa J. Demeo was nominated by President Obama in March of 2009 to become an Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. The Senate confirmed her nomination, and she was sworn in on May 10, 2010. She currently serves as the Presiding Judge of the Criminal Division and a trial judge handling murders and sexual assaults. She has served as the Deputy Presiding Judge of the Probate and Tax Divisions. She also has served as a trial judge in the Civil Division and the Domestic Violence Division. She currently serves on the Joint Committee on Judicial Administration, as the Co-Chair of the D.C. Court’s Strategic Planning Leadership Council, as Chair of the Committee on Jury Management, and on the District of Columbia Sentencing Commission.
Between July 2016 and December of 2019, Judge Demeo served as the Chair of the Judicial Education Committee. She served on the Criminal Justice Act Implementation Committee between 2010 and 2019, and again beginning in 2022. Judge Demeo also served as the Vice Chairperson and Chairperson of the Hispanic Bar Association of the District of Columbia Judicial Council. Judge Demeo graduated from Princeton University in 1988, where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Politics with a concentration in Latin American Studies. She currently serves on the Princeton University Board of Trustees. In 1993, she received her Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law (NYU), where she served on the Law Review. At NYU, Ms. Demeo was selected as a Root-Tilden Scholar for her academic achievement and commitment to public interest. After graduating from law school, Judge Demeo served with distinction as an Honors Program trial attorney in the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, where she prosecuted public employers for pattern or practice employment discrimination in federal courts around the country.
In 1997, she began working for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), a national Latino civil rights organization. After a short period as a staff attorney at MALDEF, Judge Demeo was promoted to head the D.C. office, where she served as the national advocate for MALDEF on a wide array of Latino civil rights issues. In 2004, Judge Demeo joined the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia (USAO) as an Assistant United States Attorney, where she prosecuted criminal cases. In 2007, Judge Demeo was appointed as a Magistrate Judge. From August of 2007 until May of 2010, she served in the Criminal Division. Judge Demeo has taught a course on problem solving courts at Georgetown University School of Law. She also taught criminal procedure and immigration law at Howard University School of Law.
Judge John Thomas Rooney is a retired Administrative Law Judge, serving at the District of Columbia Office of Administrative Hearings from 2007 through 2021. Prior to becoming an Administrative Law Judge, Judge Rooney was at the Office of Bar Counsel for the D Court of Appeals. An American University, B.A.’ 74 and Golden Gate University School of Law ’84 graduate, Judge Rooney also is a prior DC LGBT Bar Association board member and co-chair.
