The Honorable Robert Hildum

The Honorable Robert J. Hildum was appointed a magistrate judge by Chief Judge Anita Josey-Herring on July 1, 2024.

Before his appointment, Judge Hildum served as an Administrative Law Judge with the District of Columbia Office of Administrative Hearings beginning in 2016, where he presided over matters involving Public Benefits, Unemployment Insurance, Worker’s Compensation, and Wage Hour disputes.

From 2007 to 2016, Judge Hildum held leadership positions in five District of Columbia government agencies: Deputy Attorney General for Public Safety; Interim Director of the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services; and General Counsel for the Department of Forensic Sciences, the Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, and the Office of Unified Communications.

Judge Hildum started his career prosecuting violent crimes as an Assistant District Attorney in New Orleans, Louisiana. Following this, he became a partner at Manasseh, Hildum & Gill, PLC in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where he focused on criminal defense. After a brief period as an Assistant Attorney General with the Louisiana Department of Justice, Judge Hildum moved to Washington, D.C., in 2002, to be a Senior Trial Attorney with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Since 1999, Judge Hildum has been a faculty member on numerous programs for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (“NITA”). He was also an Adjunct Professor of Law at Louisiana State University where he taught trial practice. He has been an Adjunct Professor of Law at American University Washington College of Law since 2022, where he has taught appellate advocacy.

Judge Hildum grew up in Westbury, New York. He received his undergraduate degree in history from Loyola University (New Orleans) and his Juris Doctor from Mississippi College School of Law.