Janet E. Albert was born in Norwich, Connecticut and raised in Simsbury. She graduated magnum cum laude from Northeastern University in 1988 and received her Juris Doctor in 1991 from the American University Washington College of Law. While in law school, Ms. Albert was a student attorney for the Women and the Law Clinic, representing mothers in the abuse and neglect system of DC Superior Court. Ms. Albert also worked as a Dean's Fellow for a family law professor andworked as a legal intern for the Office of the Corporation Counsel, Child Support Section.

Upon completing law school, Ms. Albert returned to the Office of the Corporation Counsel where she served in the Child Support Section, Domestic Violence Unit and the Abuse and Neglect Section. Over the years, Ms. Albert held numerous positions in the office, including Trial Attorney, Termination of Parental Rights Coordinator, Special Assistant to the Deputy of the Family Services Division, Interim Chief of the Domestic Violence Section, and ultimately, Chief of the Abuse and Neglect Section.

During Ms. Albert's time at the Office of the Corporation Counsel, she was a member of numerous committees responsible for improving practices in the child abuse and neglect system, including, the DC Children's Advocacy Center Case Review Team and Working Group, and the Child Protection Legislation Committee. She was also a member of both the Child and Family Services Agency's Child Fatality Review Committee and the DC Fatality Review Committee.

Ms. Albert also participated in the DC Superior Court Improvement Project Advisory Committee and was the chair of the Mediation Subcommittee. In that capacity, she was instrumental in the establishment of the Child Protection Mediation Pilot Project that has since become a program of the DC Superior Court's Multi-Door Dispute Resolution Division.

In 1999 Ms. Albert jointed the US Department of\ Justice, Criminal Division, Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section as a trial attorney where she prosecuted Internet child pornography and child sex abuse cases on federal lands. Additionally, Ms. Albert traveled throughout Eastern Europe to train law enforcement and prosecutors on the US laws and best practices for investigations and prosecutions of human trafficking and sex tourism. While working in the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Ms. Albert was awarded a LLM in Litigation and Dispute Resolution from the George Washington University Law School in 2000. She also became a licensed foster parent in April 2001.

In September 2001, Ms. Albert became an Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Columbia. During her tenure, she worked in the Appellate Division, the Sex Offense and Domestic Violence Section, and the Community Prosecution and Grand Jury Section. Ms. Albert's most cherished accomplishment was the adoption of her son Jonathan in April 2003.