Biden’s historic nominating of Ana C. Reyes for the United States District Court for the District of Columbia continues efforts to ameliorate Trump’s court packing.
Reyes could make history as the first Hispanic woman, and the first out LGBTQ+ individual, to serve on the United State District Court for the District of Columbia. Haters are going to say her identity doesn’t matter and we should look at her qualifications – oh just you wait – but it’s important to take inventory and reflect on the makeup of our court systems and celebrate when voices are elevated to the bench who have not previously been heard from that high up.
Reyes is an advocate for women and asylum seekers and brings an impressive resume of lived experiences, scholastic achievement, judicial clerkship experience, and pro bono advocacy that more than qualify her for this nomination.
Reyes is a partner and co-chair of Williams and Connolly’s International Litigation Practice Group. Prior to her elevation to partner in 2009, Reyes was an associate since 2001. Reyes served as a law clerk for Judge Amalya Kearse on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit from 2000 to 2001. She received her J.D., magna cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 2000 and a Masters in International Public Policy from the Johns Hopkins School of International Studies.
Reyes was a born in Uruguay. At the age of five she emigrated from Spain to the United States.
She grew up in Kentucky and stayed there for college because she got a full scholarship, and she couldn’t afford to go anywhere else. She graduated summa cum laude from Transylvania University. She deferred enrolling at Harvard Law School for a year to work for The Feminist Majority Foundation, where she continues to serve on its board of directors to this day.
Reyes is a “recognized leader in this generation of rising legal talent,” especially in cross-border litigation and international arbitration, according to her biography online with Williams & Connolly, LLP. Her practice areas range to include, among others, “foreign sovereign immunity to international contract disputes to patent enforcement.”
Reyes also serves on the firm’s pro bono committee representing asylum applicants in Immigration Court. The National Law Journal listed Reyes as one of the top 40 minority lawyers under 40.
She has served as a Clinical Visiting Lecturer at Yale Law School teaching Advocacy in International Arbitration as an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown Law School teaching a course on the use of experts in federal courts.
Reyes has earned many other accolades including: The Legal 500 as a “Next Generation Lawyer” (2020-2021) as a “Local Litigation Star” (2019-2022) from Benchmark Litigation. The National Law Journal has recognized her multiple times, including on its Outstanding Women Lawyers list in 2015.
In 2017, the Women’s Bar Association of D.C. named her as its “Woman Lawyer of the Year.” In naming her for this award, the Women’s Bar Association emphasized, Reyes leads “by example, advocating for justice, and promoting the advancement of women in the profession.”
In accepting that award, Reyes noted advice from her mother: “Know that if you do not use your law degree in some way to help disadvantaged people, I am going to be incredibly disappointed in you.” Reyes thanked the Women’s Bar Association for giving proof to her mother that she does “in fact listen to her.”
In listening to her mother’s advice, for more than a decade Reyes has devoted significant time to pro bono representations of asylum seekers and refugee organizations, including numerous appellate matters for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and impact litigation for Human Rights First.
In 2016, she received the Legacy Award by Unlikely Heroes for her successful representation of young women escaping persecution by a regional terrorist organization.
Last October, Reyes was appointed by Chief Judge Beryl Howell and the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia as Chair of the Next Magistrate Judge Merit Selection Panel for the Court.
The panel is entrusted to “recommend to the court for consideration individuals whose character, experience, ability and commitment to equal justice under the law fully qualify them to serve as U.S. Magistrate Judge.”
In announcing this and four other federal judicial nominees, the Biden White House emphasized this action as a continuation of his “promise to ensure that the nation’s courts reflect the diversity that is one of our greatest assets as a country.”
Reyes has the qualifications, experience, and legal temperament to have earned this nomination. Reyes’ diversity of lived experiences as an immigrant and power lesbian are assets which will help add to the richness and depth of our court’s ability to reflect, and by extension, serve our pluralistic society.
