The Honorable Zoe Bush

Judge Zoe Bush was appointed to the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in 1994 by President William Jefferson Clinton.

Judge Bush was born and raised in Little Rock, Arkansas. She graduated with Honors from Wellesley College in 1976 and received a Waddell Fellowship, which permitted her to spend the summer in Ghana to research her Honors thesis in History. Judge Bush received her law degree from Harvard Law School in 1979.

Immediately after law school, Judge Bush moved to Washington, D.C. to serve as a law clerk to the Honorable James F. Merow of the United States Court of Federal Claims. The following year, she was a law clerk to the late Honorable Phillip N. Nichols of the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. In 1981, she joined the Office of General Counsel of the Washington Gas Light Company as a rate lawyer, representing the Company in rate proceedings before the District of Columbia and Maryland Public Service Commissions and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. In 1984, she joined the Office of General Counsel of the Potomac Electric Power Company (PEPCO), where she was promoted from Associate Counsel to Assistant General Counsel to Associate General Counsel.

After ten years of litigation, Judge Bush was appointed as an Administrative Judge on the Board of Contact Appeals for the District of Columbia by then-Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly, later becoming Chief Administrative Judge. During her nearly three-year tenure as Chief Judge, the backlog for bid protests was eliminated and the delay in resolving contract disputes was greatly reduced.

Judge Bush has served in the Criminal, Civil and Domestic Violence Divisions of the Court as well as in the Family Court. She has served as the Presiding Judge of the Family Court, Co-Chair of the Family Court Organization & Management Oversight Team; Co-Chair of the Implementation Committee of the Family Court; Co-Chair of the Family Court Rules Advisory Committee; Co-Chair of the Behavioral Health Committee; Co-Chair of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council Juvenile Subcommittee, Co-Chair of the Truancy Task Force and Lead Judge for the Family Court with the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. Judge Bush also serves as a member of the Superior Court Magistrate Judges Review Committee and the Rules Committee of the Superior Court. She is also past president of the Charlotte E. Ray American Inn of Court. She has received the Commissioner’s Award from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families, and is a recipient of the Charlotte E. Ray Award.

Judge Bush has been active in bar activities and community service, including the National Association of Black Women Attorneys (NABWA); the Women’s Bar Association; and the Greater Washington Area Chapter of the National Bar Association’s Women Lawyer’s Division (GWAC) and the Judicial Council of the Washington Bar Association. She has served as a tutor and “big sister” for area students.

Judge Bush has also been active in the Wellesley College Alumnae Association. Judge Bush is the proud mother of a daughter.