Issues & Trends
New CJDT Chair Amy L. Bess Discusses the Importance of Judicial Evaluations
November 20, 2025
Early this year, the D.C. Commission on Judicial Disabilities and Tenure (CJDT) welcomed Vedder Price 
shareholder Amy L. Bess as its new chair. Recently named a 2025 “Star of the Bar” by the Women’s Bar Association (WBA), Bess served two terms on the D.C. Bar Board of Governors (2008–2014) and currently sits on the board of the District of Columbia Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
The D.C. Bar spoke with Bess about her involvement with the legal community, her perspective on the value of mentorship in developing the next generation of lawyers, and the importance of the Bar’s annual Judicial Evaluation Survey in supporting and improving the D.C. Courts.
WBA’s Stars of the Bar celebration this year focused on mentorship. Why is mentorship important to you?
I was particularly honored to receive one of the Stars of the Bar awards this year because of the theme and because it was presented by one of my most important and special mentees, [D.C. Bar President] Sadina Montani.
The significance of the award is encapsulated by my relationship with Sadina. We've practiced law together. We have been close friends for [nearly] 18 years now. She came with me when I left my prior firm and came to my current firm, which was 15 years ago. And so, we’ve known each other for the entirety of Sadina's legal career. I have been very committed to mentoring junior lawyers because I believe it is my obligation as a senior member of the legal profession to do my part to help junior lawyers grow and develop.
You’re helping create the leaders of the future by sharing mistakes that you’ve made as well as advice on how they can build their practice and their professional identity, how they can be involved in the community, and how they can participate in pro bono work — all toward the ultimate goal of becoming a fully formed lawyer, or whatever they aspire to be in their professional pursuits.
It's about helping someone else find their purpose, their mission, their reach, and [helping them] achieve their aspirations and their life goals. It's been a really gratifying part of my professional journey as well to be able to help other lawyers achieve their highest potential.
Do these values connect to your new role as CJDT chair?
Yes, I think they are connected in important ways. We see the commission as a body that is designed to support D.C. judges in terms of their professional success on the bench because a judge's professional success means successful courts, and that's really core to what the commission is about.
We do everything in our power to ensure that the D.C. Courts can maintain the public’s trust in their independence and competence. That means we need to support our judicial system and retain the highest quality judges who are absolutely committed to public safety and access to justice for our community. When we learn about a judge who may be struggling, we can potentially intervene and provide support to the judge before that issue manifests as an ethical or judicial demeanor issue. So, it’s important for us to hear information early on that we can use to work with our judges to ensure they succeed, stay on the bench, and thrive. That is where the Bar’s judicial evaluation process plays an important role.
I think, historically the commission was viewed differently. Judges saw us wholly as a disciplinary body that would crack down on a judge whenever the public complained about an issue relating to ethics or integrity. We were to be avoided at all costs. That is not the way we see our highest and best use.
Obviously, it is part of our statutory mission to investigate complaints, and that is a big part of what we do. And we also are very deeply involved in conducting fitness reviews when judges come up for reappointment, so we take a very thoughtful and close, meaningful look at the judge's entire record to make our reappointment decisions and recommendations.
Most importantly, we are a supportive body for the courts. It's our goal to make sure that all our judges on the D.C. Courts thrive, succeed, flourish and can serve the public at large.
What is the value of feedback from the annual judicial evaluation survey?
The judicial evaluations conducted by the D.C. Bar are one of the tools that we rely upon to gather real-time information about how our judges are doing.
The judicial survey has, in some respects, a natural limitation in that it's an anonymous process. We certainly take into account the fact that someone is reporting information anonymously about a judge as we evaluate the information that we're receiving. But when we have multiple attorneys who have appeared before a judge, and who are consistently reporting on very specific and direct experiences they had with that judge, that is important and credible information that can inform our perspective, along with various other inputs, of course.
If we receive multiple evaluations indicating that attorneys are having similar experiences before a particular judge, that can inform [our] decision to look into the situation and determine whether there's an issue that needs to be addressed.
It's also important for us to hear how judges are succeeding on the bench, so the positive feedback that we get through the judicial evaluation process is equally critical to us. We are making a very concerted effort to bring judges in to talk to the commission about their successes, as opposed to just talking to judges if they receive a troubling judicial evaluation.
These conversations allow us to hear from those judges about what it is they're doing well and share that information with other judges, [including] the chief judges as models of excellent judicial performance.
Why should attorneys participate?
Right now, the D.C. Courts are struggling with a variety of challenges due to the number of judicial vacancies that exist both on D.C. Superior Court and the D.C. Court of Appeals at a time when case filings and prosecutions are very high.
Our judges are working harder than ever before. We have a number of senior judges who are working the maximum number of hours that are legally authorized, and many of our senior judges are actually volunteering their time to work additional hours just because of the crush of work on the courts and their desire to help their colleagues and the courts. They're also devoting countless additional hours serving on committees, training and mentoring junior judges, helping draft and revise rules, and doing all kinds of additional work that goes above and beyond the time that they're devoting to their cases both in and out of the courtroom.
So, we think that it's so important for attorneys to participate in this process because it enables all those judges who are doing such heroic work to be validated, applauded, and appreciated for the good work they're doing to serve our community.
And when we learn that there are some gaps in the process, the evaluations help us intervene immediately and address them by offering resources and support that may be helpful in proactively addressing any concerns.
Attorneys who participate in the judicial surveys are helping us meet our statutory mission and are supporting the excellence of our D.C. Courts. The commission is very grateful for that support.
