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The Daily Washington Law Reporter

Daily Legal Intelligence Since 1874

Judge Biographies

Weisberg, Frederick H.

Appointed: 
January 13, 1978

Mr. Weisberg graduated from Cornell University with honors in 1965, and received

his J.D., cum laude, in 1968 from the University of Michigan, where he was Notes and

Comments Editor of the Michigan Law Review. Following his graduation from law school,

Mr. 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,

Mr. Weisberg represented indigent residents of Brooklyn, New York in a variety of civil

matters, and he received an LL.M in Urban Law from New York University Law School.

In 1970, Mr. Weisberg came to Washington as a staff attorney for the Public

Defender Service. During his first three years at P.D.S., 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, Mr. Weisberg joined the appellate staff of P.D.S.,

becoming the Chief of the Appellate Division in 1974. As Chief of the Appellate Division,

he supervised all of the appeals handled by P.D.S. attorneys in th 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.

Mr. Weisberg has served for the past two years as a member of the Advisory

Committee on Procedures of the Judicial Council of the District of Columbia Circuit and also

serves on a subcommittee of the District of Columbia Judicial Planning Committee

appointed by Chief Judge Newman to measure the performance of the Court of Appeals

in reference to the ABA Standards relating to appellate courts. Until his appointment, Mr.

Weisberg was also a member of the Appellate Council of the National Legal Aid and

Defender Association.

He is the first Public Defender to be appointed to the Superior Court Bench.