The mission of the Commission on Judicial Disabilities and Tenure is to maintain public confidence in an independent, impartial, fair, and qualified judiciary, and to enforce the high standards of conduct judges must adhere to both on and off the bench.  By law, official Commission decisions related to its enabling statutory requirements and mission are made by the Commission, each of whom is appointed independently for a term of five (5) or six (6) years by the President of the United States, the District of Columbia Mayor, the District of Columbia Council, the Board of Governors of the DC Bar, and the Chief Judge of the District Court for the District of Columbia. Information about Commission members can be found at Commission Membership | cjdt.

Each year, under its Rules, Commission members elect a Chairperson who may designate a Vice Chairperson or other officers she or he deems appropriate. The Chairperson oversees and carries out the routine of Commission business. The current Chairperson is Commissioner Amy L. Bess, Esq., effective January 1, 2025. The Commission’s Vice Chairperson is Commissioner Diane M. Brenneman, who served alongside the immediate past Chairperson and Commissioner, Hon. Colleen Kollar-Kotelly.

In normal times, the Commission is supported by an Executive Director and an additional full-time staff member. Those positions are currently vacant. After leadership review and redesign of the past job descriptions, the Commission will recruit to fill these positions in FY25.  All qualified candidates are encouraged to apply.

Under its Rules, the Commission is also supported by an independent special counsel and other consultants, who are not District employees, but who play a critically important role in the Commission’s mission. Since the 1970s, the Commission has contracted with an independent Special Counsel, who (i) serves as a trusted independent legal advisor to the Commission on its mission-related statutory obligations; (ii) reviews, preliminarily investigates, and advises on judicial conduct complaints, concerns, disciplinary, or medical matters; and (iii) executes legal-related projects as requested by the Commission and its Chairperson.  The Commission also is supported by an independent medical physician who advises the Commission on routine and special medical matters that arise from time to time. The Commission may retain medical or other experts to assist it. Finally, although it is an independent agency, given its small size, the Commission has the statutory authority to contract other District agencies to support its operations, which it does on a routine basis.

Current Leadership Team

Amy L. Bess, Esq.-Chairperson
Chairperson Amy Bess was appointed to the Commission by the DC Bar Board of Governors in 2022. She was unanimously selected by the Commission to succeed outgoing Chairperson, the Honorable Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, effective January 1, 2025. Chairperson Bess is a Shareholder in the DC Office of the global law firm of Vedder Price PC and has practiced law in the District of Columbia since 1988. She is a highly experienced labor and employment litigator and counselor, representing employers in resolving employment disputes and workplace challenges of all kinds. Her more than three decades of legal experience has focused on conducting trials, arbitrations, mediations, investigations, and providing employment counseling and workplace training. Commissioner Bess is a regular speaker and writer on a variety of topics impacting the modern workplace. She has been regularly listed for over a a decade in the Legal 500 United States Guide and Washington DC Super Lawyers and has been selected by Washingtonian Magazine for each of its “Best Lawyers in DC” editions since 2011. Throughout her career, Commissioner Bess has been active in several local non-profits including serving on the boards of the Women’s Bar Association Foundation, Everybody Wins DC (a local children’s literacy organization), and the DC Coalition Against Domestic Violence. She has served two elected terms as a member of the DC Bar Board of Governors and is a past member and Chair of the DC Bar’s Pro Bono Committee. She has received a number of honors and recognitions for her career-long commitment to pro bono legal services.

Hon. Diane M. Brenneman (Ret.)-Vice Chairperson
Chairperson Bess has re-appointed the Hon. Diane Brenneman (Ret.) to continue in her role as Vice Chairperson of the Commission for the remaining year of her term as Commissioner. Vice Chairperson Brenneman served as a Magistrate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia from 2004 until her retirement from judicial service in 2020. Vice Chairperson Brenneman was appointed as a Commissioner by the DC Bar Board of Governors in 2021 and assumed the role of Vice Chairperson in the fall of 2021 at the request of then-Chairperson Kollar-Kotelly. Vice Chairperson Brenneman is well known for her commitment to the DC Courts and public service in the DC community for which she was honored by the Bar Association of the District of Columbia as the recipient of the prestigious Suzanne V. Richards Award in 2023.  In recent years and currently, Vice Chairperson Brenneman oversees all operational matters related to the Commission’s budget and finances, in addition to supporting the Chairperson oversee statutory mission-related matters handled by staff, provided by or contracted to other District agencies, as well as the activities and duties of the Commission’s independent advisors, such as its Independent Special Counsel or the Commission’s medical advisor.

Amy Conway-Hatcher, Esq.-Independent Special Counsel and Interim Executive Director
In 2018, the Commission selected Amy Conway-Hatcher, Esq. to serve as its Independent Special Counsel, effective January 1, 2019. In this role, Ms. Conway-Hatcher serves as a trusted legal counsel to the Commission. Under the oversight of the Commission, she reviews and conducts preliminary investigations of complaints, advises the Commission on complaint dispositions, informal and formal disciplinary actions, as well as sensitive medical matters, fitness reviews, and Commission precedent. Currently, as she has done in the past formally and informally during periods of staff transition or absences, Ms. Conway-Hatcher has been designated to serve as the Commission’s Interim Executive Director on statutory, mission-related matters while the Commission searches for new staff. These duties include, for example, the planning, conduct, and executing of actions determined by the Commission at its monthly meetings, overseeing the Commission’s judicial fitness review processes and required reporting of judges such as annual judicial financial disclosures, commission correspondence, and other mission-related duties as directed by the Chairperson and Vice Chairperson. Ms. Conway-Hatcher previously served in this temporary mission-driven role in 2023. Ms. Conway-Hatcher is a seasoned counsel and trusted advisor who brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to the Commission on a range of complex issues. She is a partner at Schertler, Onorato, Mead & Sears, and has worked in the private sector for decades handling sensitive corporate and organizational investigations for global companies and their Board of Directors, as well as the defense of companies, senior executives, board members in public and non-public criminal and civil enforcement matters and related litigation. Ms. Conway-Hatcher has previously served as a board member and officer for non-profit Boards and is a member of Women Corporate Directors. Prior to her private sector career, Ms. Conway-Hatcher served as an Assistant United States Attorney for 6 ½ years in the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia where, as a practitioner, she gained extensive familiarity with the District’s Courts and the importance of their role in serving the public.