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 as they deem appropriate. The Chairperson oversees and manages the routine business of the Commission. Effective January 1, 2025, the current Chairperson is Commissioner Amy L. Bess, Esq., and the Commission’s Vice Chairperson is Commissioner Loren L. AliKhan.

The Commission is staffed by a Deputy Executive Director and a Chief Administrative Officer. Additional operational support is provided by independent contractors, as needed. The Commission also works with a physician who advises on routine and special medical matters that arise in the course of its work. When necessary, the Commission may retain additional medical or subject matter experts to provide specialized assistance. Although the Commission operates as an independent agency, its small size allows it to efficiently leverage resources across the District government. Pursuant to its statutory authority, the Commission regularly contracts with other District agencies for administrative and operational support. other District agencies to support its operations, which it does on a routine basis.

Current Leadership Team

Hon. Loren L. AliKhan - Chairperson 
Chairperson Bess has appointed the Hon. Loren L. AliKhan, as Vice Chairperson of the Commission. On September 26, 2025, Chief Judge James E. Boasberg of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia formally appointed United States District Court Judge Loren L. AliKhan as the federal judiciary representative on the Commission following the resignation of the Honorable Colleen Kollar-Kotelly. Vice Chairperson AliKhan brings a wealth of unique and specialized experience to the Commission and will be invaluable in supporting the Commission’s mission of maintaining public confidence in an independent, impartial, fair, and qualified judiciary, and enforcing the high standards of conduct judges must adhere to both on and off the bench. Vice Chairperson AliKhan was appointed to the District Court in December 2023, following her judicial service on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. She previously served as Solicitor General in the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia and has handled nearly 3,000 cases in the District’s federal and local courts. She received her Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, from Bard College at Simon’s Rock and her Juris Doctor, magna cum laude, from Georgetown University Law Center.

Amy L. Bess, Esq. - Vice 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.

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.