The Honorable Janet Albert

Janet E. Albert was appointed a Magistrate Judge by Chief Judge Rufus G. King III on August 25, 2003.

Judge Albert was born in Norwich, Connecticut and raised in Simsbury. She graduated magna cum laude from Northeastern University and received her J.D. from the Washington College of Law. While in law school, Judge Albert was a student attorney for the Women and the Law Clinic, representing mothers in the abuse and neglect system of D.C. Superior Court. Judge Albert also served as a Dean’s Fellow for a family law professor and worked as a legal intern for the Office of the Corporation Counsel, Child Support Section.

Upon completing law school, Judge Albert returned to the Office of the Corporation Counsel where she served in the Child Support Section, Domestic Violence Unit and the Abuse & Neglect Section. Judge Albert held numerous positions in the office, including Trial Attorney, Termination of Parental Rights Coordinator, Special Assistant to the Deputy, Family Services Division, Interim Chief of the Domestic Violence Section, and ultimately, Chief of the Abuse & Neglect Section.

During Judge Albert’s time at the Office of the Corporation Counsel, she was a member of numerous committees responsible for improving practices in the child abuse and neglect system, including the DC Children’s Advocacy Center Case Review Team and Working Group and the Child Protection Legislation Committee. She was also a member of both the Child and Family Services Agency’s Child Fatality Review Committee and the D.C. Fatality Review Committee. Judge Albert also participated in the D.C. Superior Court Improvement Project Advisory Committee and was the chair of the Mediation Subcommittee. In that capacity, she was instrumental in the establishment of the Child Protection Mediation Pilot Project that has since become a program of the D.C. Superior Court’s Multi-Door Dispute Resolution Division.

In 1999 Judge Albert joined the U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section as a trial attorney where she prosecuted Internet child pornography and child sex abuse cases on federal lands. Additionally, Ms. Albert traveled throughout Eastern Europe to train law enforcement and prosecutors on the U.S. laws and best practices for investigations and prosecutions of human trafficking and sex tourism. While working in the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Judge Albert was awarded an LLM in Litigation and Dispute Resolution from GWU Law School in 2000. She became a licensed foster parent in April 2001 and an adoptive parent in April 2003.

In September 2001, Judge Albert became an Assistant United States Attorney for the United States Attorney’s Office for D.C. During her tenure, she worked in the Appellate Division, Sex Offense and Domestic Violence Section, and Community Prosecution and Grand Jury Section.