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.

The Commission is supported by an Executive Director, Deputy Executive Director and additional staff. 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.

Moses A. Cook, JD, LLM - Executive Director 
Moses A. Cook is the Executive Director for the Commission on Judicial Disabilities and Tenure (CJDT). As Executive Director, Mr. Cook serves as a key advisor to the Commission on all matters and manages the day-to-day operations of the Commission under the Chairperson's direction.He works with Commission members, the Commission's independent Special Counsel, and medical advisors on the Commission's statutory obligations, strategic planning, and project management. Mr. Cook has over two decades of executive and senior leadership experience in operations management, fiscal oversight, strategic planning, and fundraising. He has led organizational transformation efforts to enhance efficiency and sustainability, developed HR procedures and operational policies to streamline workflows, and managed development activities that expanded organizational revenue. He has similarly served as a consultant for nonprofits seeking to manage strategic growth, transform operations, and achieve organizational sustainability. His deep experience with the District of Columbia legal community includes ten years supervising law students in clinical programs appearing before Superior Court of the District of Columbia and the District of Columbia Court of Appeals, while also serving as an Adjunct Professor of Law at George Washington University. He served on the DC Bar Board of Governors from 2015-19, where he collaborated with fellow governors to oversee the DC Bar's operations and budget. As Co-Director of the DC Consortium of Legal Services Providers from 2018-19, he co-led a steering committee representing 30 legal advocacy organizations in the District of Columbia. Mr. Cook holds a Juris Doctor from Washington University School of Law and an LL.M from Georgetown University Law Center through the E. Barrett Prettyman Fellowship Program. He is admitted to practice before the US Supreme Court and the US District Court for the District of Columbia and is a member of the District of Columbia Bar.

Catherine S. Bruno, JD - Deputy Executive Director
Catherine Bruno is the Deputy Executive Director for Commission on Judicial Disabilities and Tenure (CJDT). As Deputy Executive Director, Ms. Bruno is a key advisor to the Executive Director and the Commission on all operational matters. She works with the Executive Director and Commission members on overall agency operations, project management, budget management, and strategic planning and implementation of Commission objectives. She works closely with the Commission’s Special Counsel on sensitive legal and investigative matters and briefs the Commission on trends and developments from federal state Commissions across the United States. Ms. Bruno has over thirty years of experience in the public sector as a prosecutor, investigator, and leader of ethics and compliance functions in government. From August 2018 until May 2025, she served as the Assistant Director in the FBI’s Office of Integrity and Compliance (OIC). In that capacity, she managed the FBI’s ethics and compliance programs. Prior to that, Ms. Bruno served as the Special Assistant to the General Counsel of the FBI for Office of the Inspector General and Government Accountability Office matters in 2009. From 2013-2014 she also held the position of Acting Chief of Staff to the General Counsel. From 2002 to 2009, Ms. Bruno served as an Investigative Counsel and a Deputy Assistant Inspector General with the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General, investigating allegations of waste, fraud and abuse within the Department of Justice. From 1996 to 2002, Ms. Bruno prosecuted cases as an Assistant United States Attorney in the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, including domestic violence, arson, wire fraud, and gun trafficking conspiracies. Ms. Bruno graduated summa cum laude from Boston College Law School in the class of 1995, where she held the position of editor on the Boston College Law Review. Following graduation, Ms. Bruno clerked for the Hon. Gilbert Merritt, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit. She is a 1989 Harry S. Truman scholar from the District of Columbia.

Amy Conway-Hatcher, Esq.-Independent Special Counsel
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 external 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, Commission precedent, and other matters. 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.