Press Release - President Obama Announces Marisa J. Demeo and Florence Y. Pan for DC Superior Court

WASHINGTON, DC – President Obama today announced his intent to nominate Marisa J. Demeo and Florence Y. Pan to be Associate Judges in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. Demeo currently works as a Magistrate Judge in the Criminal Division of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia; Pan currently serves as Deputy Chief of the Appellate Section in the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia.

"I am pleased to put forward two nominees who have served the people of the District of Columbia with such distinction," President Obama said. "Marisa Demeo and Florence Pan have dedicated their careers to serving the public good and they will be esteemed and eminent additions to the DC Superior Court."

Marisa Demeo

Magistrate Judge Demeo was born in Washington, DC. Following her distinguished work as a paralegal in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, she was selected for a Root Tilden scholarship at the NYU School of Law.

Throughout her career, Demeo has displayed a commitment to public interest work. She has worked for numerous public interest groups including the AIDS Service Center of Lower Manhattan, the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund and Texas Rural Legal Aid. Following further work at the Department of Justice and at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, Demeo prosecuted misdemeanor and felony cases as an Assistant United States Attorney in the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia. In 2007, Demeo was appointed as a Magistrate Judge in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.

Demeo has also served as an adjunct professor at the Howard University School of Law.

Florence Pan

Florence Pan grew up in New Jersey and graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania before earning her law degree at Stanford in 1993. She then clerked for Judge Michael Mukasey on the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and Judge Ralph Winter on the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

Pan was then selected in the prestigious Bristow Fellowships Program for the Office of the Solicitor General at the Department of Justice before working as an attorney in the Criminal Appellate Section of the Department of Justice. In 1998, she worked as a senior adviser to the Undersecretary for Domestic Finance at the Treasury Department. She currently serves as Deputy Chief of the Appellate Section in the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia.

Pan also serves as an adjunct professor of criminal procedure at the Washington College of Law at American University.