The Hon. Jennifer A. Di Toro is an associate judge for the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. She was nominated to the bench by former President Barack Obama in February 2011. Di Toro was confirmed by the United States Senate in September 2011.
Prior to her nomination, she was legal director of the Children’s Law Center in the District of Columbia since 2004. Di Toro spent seven years with the Center and also worked in private practice as an associate at Zuckerman Spaeder, LLP, where she handled white-collar criminal defense and complex civil litigation matters.
She received a bachelor’s degree from Wesleyan University (1989) and a master’s degree in philosophy from the University of Oxford (1991). Di Toro then completed a J.D. at Stanford Law School and an LL.M. in advocacy from Georgetown Law School.
After graduating from law school, she was awarded an E. Barrett Prettyman Fellowship to represent low-income residents of the District of Columbia in Superior Court through the Georgetown University Law Center’s Criminal Justice Clinic. Following her fellowship, Di Toro joined the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia as a staff attorney, where her assignments included the Special Litigation Division. During that time, she helped prepare impact litigation suits and handled ethics and conflict inquiries for the General Counsel’s Office.
Di Toro has trained members of the legal community through the Washington Council of Lawyers, Georgetown University Law Center, and Harvard Law School.
She holds the distinction of being the first married LGBT individual with children to be confirmed by the Senate to hold a judicial position.