Judge Bios

Judge Gerald I. Fisher was appointed to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in 2001 by President William Jefferson Clinton.

Judge Fisher was born and raised in Newport News, Virginia. He attended the College of William & Mary, where he received a Bachelor of Arts in history in 1972. After graduation from William & Mary, Judge Fisher lived in Israel for one year, playing and coaching basketball. For three years after returning to the United States, he worked for the Arlington County, Virginia government and applied to law school during that time. He received his law degree in 1977 from the Columbus School of Law at Catholic University, where he was an editor of the law review, served as an intern for the Center for National Policy Review, and practiced law as a student-attorney in the D.C. Law Students in Court Program.

After graduation, Judge Fisher served as a law clerk for then-Associate Judge J. Walter Yeagley of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. He then served for five years as a supervising attorney in the Criminal Division of the Law Students in Court Program. In 1984, Judge Fisher co-founded the law firm of Fisher, Morin & Kagan- Kans, where he specialized in complex criminal and civil litigation. He remained with the firm, which eventually became Fisher & Hansen, until his appointment to the bench.

Beginning in 1984, Judge Fisher has been an adjunct professor of law at the Georgetown University Law Center and has taught courses in civil and criminal trial practice, capital punishment jurisprudence, and evidence. He has also been a frequent lecturer and panelist at continuing legal education seminars, and he has served on the faculty of the Harvard Law School’s Trial Advocacy Workshop, the Santa Clara University Law School’s Death Penalty College, and California Western Law School’s Institute for Criminal Defense Advocacy.

Since joining the Court, Judge Fisher has served in the Criminal and Civil Divisions and the Domestic Violence Unit. He is the Chairman of the Continuing Legal Education Subcommittee and has been active in providing training to judges and attorneys in evidence and criminal and civil law and procedure.