The Honorable Yvonne M. Williams

Yvonne M. Williams was nominated by President Barack Obama in February 2011 and confirmed by the United States Senate in August 2011.

Judge Williams was born in Detroit, Michigan and raised in Chicago, Illinois, where she graduated from Whitney M. Young Magnet High School. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology from the University of California at Berkeley and her Juris Doctor from Northeastern University School of Law.

Upon graduation from law school, Judge Williams received a National Association of Public Interest Law (now Equal Justice Works) Fellowship to work at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (“LDF”). As an attorney at LDF, Judge Williams represented plaintiffs in federal individual and class action employment discrimination cases throughout the country. Following her work at LDF, Judge Williams joined the Trial Division of the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (“PDS”) where she represented indigent clients charged with criminal offenses in D.C. Superior Court.

After five years at PDS, Judge Williams joined Miller & Chevalier Chartered (“M&C”), left to work briefly at Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati, and then again at M&C. At both offices, she conducted and managed internal investigations, in both criminal and civil contexts, for mid-size and multi-national corporations and defended corporations against claims of employment discrimination, and individuals in matters involving allegations of defamation, government contracting fraud, insider trading, conspiracy, and other fraud-related allegations.

Since joining the Court in 2011, Judge Williams has presided over matters in the Criminal, Family, and Civil Divisions of the Court. She has served on multiple committees including the Rules, Jury Instructions, Judicial Education, Public Education, and the Criminal Justice Act Panel Committees. She also served as the Chair of the Commission on the Selection and Tenure of Administrative Law Judges at the Office of Administrative Hearings.