Judge Bios

JOSHUA DEAHL SWORN IN AS NEWEST D.C. COURT OF APPEALS JUDGE

Joshua Deahl was sworn in Monday, January 6, 2020 as a judge of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.  Judge Deahl began work immediately.

Judge Deahl was formerly an attorney in the appellate division of the Public Defender Service (PDS) for the District of Columbia. He handled the appeals of indigent criminal defendants convicted of serious offenses and frequently appeared before the D.C. Court of Appeals. Prior to his work at PDS, Judge Deahl was Counsel in the Supreme Court and Appellate Practice at the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers here in Washington, D.C., where he briefed cases in a majority of the United States Circuit Courts of Appeals, along with various state appellate courts. After law school, Judge Deahl served as a law clerk to the Honorable Anthony M. Kennedy of the Supreme Court of the United States, the Honorable Sandra Day O’Connor (Ret.) of the Supreme Court of the United States, and the Honorable Fortunato P. Benavides of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He is the co-author, with Professor Richard D. Friedman, of a textbook and practitioner’s guide entitled The Federal Rules of Evidence: Text and History (West 2015).

Mr. Deahl received his law degree, magna cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School, where he was an articles editor on the Michigan Law Review and the student commencement speaker. He received his undergraduate degrees, magna cum laude, in philosophy and political science from Arizona State University.

From News at www.dccourts.gov

Printed in the January 22, 2020 edition of the DWLR.