The Hon. Susan Rebecca Holmes (Ret.) was an associate judge for the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. She was nominated to the bench by former President Ronald Reagan in 1984. Holmes retired in 2007.
During her judicial tenure, she held assignments in the Civil and Criminal Divisions and was appointed Deputy Presiding Judge and Presiding Judge of the Family Division.
Prior to her nomination, Holmes was an Assistant United States Attorney with the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, a staff attorney in the Criminal Fraud Division of the Department of Justice, and a private practice attorney in Boston, Massachusetts.
She received a B.A. in mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania. Holmes then completed a J.D. at Boston College Law School. She was admitted to practice in the District of Columbia (1978) and Massachusetts (1976).
She served as a mentor to young attorneys and high school students and a guest lecturer for law schools, high schools, and young attorneys in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia. Holmes also acted as a guest speaker and consultant for the governments of Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Malawi, assisting the governments in developing Civil Delay Reduction and Case Management Systems and Alternative Dispute Resolution programs. She also conducted mediation training and computer technology seminars in East Central Africa.
Holmes has taught as an adjunct professor at the Harvard Law School Trial Advocacy Program and Georgetown Medical School, Department of Psychiatry. In addition, she has co-authored articles and book chapters on legal and religious subjects.
Holmes, a mother of two, resides in Washington, D.C.