WHAT: Investiture of Florence Y. Pan 
 
WHERE: Atrium, Moultrie Courthouse – Third Floor, 500 Indiana Ave, NW 
 
WHEN: July 17, 2009 at 4:00 pm 
 
WHO:  Chief Judge Lee F. Satterfield; Judge-designate Florence Y. Pan 
 
Biography:  President Barack Obama nominated Florence Y. Pan to the Superior Court bench on March 24, 2009 and the US Senate confirmed her nomination on May 21, 2009.  Ms. Pan most recently was a Deputy Chief of the Appellate Division of the US Attorney’s Office, where she supervised criminal appeals in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals and in the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. As a Deputy Chief of the Appellate Division, Ms. Pan reviewed briefs and prepared attorneys for appellate arguments; and provided legal advice and training to attorneys and law-enforcement officers.  Ms. Pan also handled cases involving difficult legal issues, including the case of United States v. Paul Askew, which she argued before the en banc DC Circuit.  

Earlier in her career as an Assistant United States Attorney, Ms. Pan prosecuted homicides and other violent crimes in the Superior Court; as well as organized-crime and narcotics-trafficking cases in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia.  Ms. Pan was one of the prosecutors in the case of United States v. Kenneth Simmons, et al., which was a six-month federal trial of six defendants, all of whom were found guilty and sentenced to lengthy prison terms.  The defendants were charged in an 158-count indictment (along with lead defendant Kevin Gray), based on their membership in a criminal gang that the press dubbed “Murder, Inc.”  The charges included narcotics conspiracy, Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organization (RICO) conspiracy, continuing criminal enterprise, and numerous other crimes involving drugs and violence -- including eight murders and the shooting of a cooperating witness that left the victim a paraplegic.  Ms. Pan received numerous Special Achievement Awards and a US Attorney’s Office Team Award during her tenure as an Assistant United States Attorney.    

Prior to joining the US Attorney’s Office, Ms. Pan was Senior Advisor to Gary Gensler, an Undersecretary for Domestic Finance at the United States Department of the Treasury during the Clinton Administration.  Before that, Ms. Pan served at the United States Department of Justice, first as a Bristow Fellow in the Office of the Solicitor General, and then as an attorney in the Appellate Section of the Criminal Division.  Immediately after graduation from law school, Ms. Pan served as a law clerk to the Honorable Michael B. Mukasey, United States District Court for the Southern District of New York; and then as a law clerk to the Honorable Ralph K. Winter, United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.   
Pan Investiture Advisory July 13, 2090 Page Two 
 
 
Ms. Pan is an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Washington College of Law, American University, where she teaches Criminal Procedure.  She received her law degree, with distinction, from Stanford Law School in 1993; and two undergraduate degrees, summa cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania in 1988.  She was born in New York City, and was raised in Tenafly, New Jersey.   Ms. Pan is married to Max Stier.  They are the proud parents of two sons.