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.

Amy Conway-Hatcher, Esq.-Special Counsel and Interim Executive Director
Special Counsel Amy Conway-Hatcher, Esq. to serve as its Interim Executive Director, pending the Commission’s search for a permanent Executive Director. Ms. Conway-Hatcher has served as the Commission’s independent Special Counsel since January 2019. She 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 previously served as the Commission’s informal interim executive director in 2023. Ms. Conway-Hatcher 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 following a clerkship in the DC Superior Court.