The Honorable Ronna L. Beck

Judge Ronna Lee Beck was nominated by President Clinton on May 26, 1995 to serve as an associate judge on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia

Judge Beck was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She received her B.A. from the University of Michigan in 1969 after spending her junior year in England at the London School of Economics. She received her J.D. from Yale Law School in 1972. As part of her legal training, she spent a semester at the Center for Law and Social Policy in Washington, D.C. working on litigation involving the rights of mentally ill and mentally retarded adults and children.

After graduating from law school, Judge Beck served as judicial clerk to the Honorable Theodore R. Newman, Jr., then an Associate Judge of the D.C. Superior Court. Following the clerkship, Judge Beck was a staff attorney at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia.

In 1977, Judge Beck joined the law firm of Rogovin, Stern, and Huge, where she was an associate and then the first woman partner (1980-1985). While at the Rogovin firm, Judge Beck was involved in a wide range of civil and criminal litigation matters and served as outside deputy special counsel to what was then the Civil Service Commission. Thereafter, Judge Beck had a general civil litigation practice.

Judge Beck's volunteer activities before her judicial appointment included serving as a court-appointed mediator at the Superior Court, as a member of a special committee of the D.C. Bar investigating the relationship between the Superior Court bench and attorneys appointed to represent indigent defendants under the Criminal Justice Act, as a volunteer attorney at the neighborhood Legal Services program, and as a child-life volunteer at Children's Hospital.

As a judge, Judge Beck has served in the Criminal Division, the Civil Division and the Family Court. Her committee assignments have included service on the CJA Panel Committee, the CJA Implementation Committee, the Adoption Day Committee, and the Adoption Rules Committee. She co-chaired the Family Court Panels Committee and chaired the Investigator Subcommittee.

Judge Beck has been a resident of the District of Columbia since 1972. She is married and has three children.