The Honorable Henry F. Greene

Henry Greene was born in New York City in 1941 and graduated cum laude from Harvard College in 1963 and Columbia Law School in 1966. He is a member of the Bars of the District of Columbia and the Supreme Court of the United States.

After serving as law clerk to United States District Judge William B. Bryant from September 1966 to January 1968, Judge Greene joined the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia. There he was involved in both the trial and appeal of serious criminal cases, served as Executive Assistant United States Attorney from 1972 to 1977, and Director of Superior Court Operations from 1977 to 1981.

Judge Greene was nominated to the Superior Court bench by President Reagan, confirmed by the Senate, and sworn in on May 1, 1981. In February 1996, he was unanimously found "well qualified" for reappointment by the District of Columbia Commission on Judicial Disabilities and Tenure and redesignated for a second term. In April 2000, he sought and received appointment as a Senior Judge of the Court, and was reappointed as a Senior Judge in 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2018 and 2020.

During over forty years on the Court, Judge Greene has presided over trials in all major divisions (Criminal, Civil and Family), managed the Court's complex asbestos case litigation, tried some of the Court's most serious first degree murder cases, including the longest jury trial in the history of the Court (and the first Superior Court case ever tried in the United States Courthouse), and sat by designation on over thirty cases in the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. He also has chaired the Court's Legislation and Instructions Committee, advocated and implemented more effective techniques to manage jury trials of civil and criminal cases, and chaired the Court's Rules Committee. Additionally, he has been active in the training of new judges, both as a member of the Court's Judicial Training Committee and as a faculty member at the National Judicial College.

He has written numerous opinions and has prepared extensive training materials for both Superior Court judges and those enrolled at the National Judicial College. As a Senior Judge, he has remained involved in criminal jury and non-jury trials, temporary restraining orders proceedings in civil cases, probate matters, and appellate cases (by designation), and served on the District of Columbia Courts' Strategic Planning Leadership Council, the Superior Court's Jury Management Committee and the Court’s Liaison Committee to the Commission on Judicial Disabilities and Tenure.

Judge Greene has been on Harvard Law School’s Trial Advocacy Workshop faculty since 2011, and was a Professorial Lecturer in Law at George Washington University Law School, teaching "The Craft of Judging" from 2008 to 2019. He was an editor of the second and third editions of Criminal Jury Instructions for the District of Columbia, has authored several articles, was a member of both the District of Columbia Jury Project and the Grand Jury Study Committee of the Council for Court Excellence, and co-authored the Fifth and Sixth Editions of The Law of Evidence in the District of Columbia in 2011 and 2020, as well as biannual supplements. He lives in Washington with his wife of 55 years, Karen.