The Honorable Robert E. Morin

Judge Robert E. Morin was appointed to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in 1996.

Judge Morin was born in Boston, Massachusetts and graduated from the University of Massachusetts with a degree in Sociology in 1974. He received his law degree from Catholic University Law School in 1977.

After graduating from law school, Judge Morin joined the law firm of Furey, Doolan & Abell, where he focused primarily on civil and criminal litigation. In 1980, he accepted a position as a Clinical Supervisor in the Criminal Division of the D.C. Law Students in Court Program in Washington, D.C. While at the Clinic, he supervised third year law students representing indigent persons charged with crimes and taught classes in criminal procedure and trial techniques.

In 1982, Judge Morin assisted in establishing and worked at the Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta, Georgia. The Center was established to provide representation of indigent persons charged in capital cases or under a sentence of death, and to train lawyers to provide such representation.

In 1984, Judge Morin returned to the Washington Metropolitan area and accepted a position with the Office of the Public Defender for the State of Maryland to undertake representation of defendants in the lead death penalty cases in that state.

Since 1986, Judge Morin has served as an Adjunct Professor of Law at the Georgetown Law Center, teaching Evidence and Capital Punishment.

From 1986 until his investiture in 1996, Judge Morin was a partner in the law firm of Fisher, Morin & Hansen, located in Washington, D.C. where he specialized in the area of the defense of serious criminal and death penalty cases. He continued to train lawyers to represent persons charged with capital crimes, speaking at numerous national conferences and training programs. For his work in these areas, in 1993 he was named Lawyer of the Year by both the Maryland Association of Criminal Defense Attorneys and the District of Columbia Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers.

Since joining the Court, Judge Morin has served on a variety of committees of the Court including the Criminal Justice Act and Family Court Panel Committees, the CJA Plan Implementation Committee, the Criminal Rules Advisory Committee, and the Superior Court Rules Committee. He has served in the Criminal Division, Civil Divisions and Family Court.

Judge Morin served as Chief Judge of DC Superior Court from 2016 to 2020.