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On Thursday, Governor John P. de Jongh, Jr. heralded the announcement by President Barack Obama that Virgin Islander Wilma Lewis had been nominated for a judgeship on the bench of the U.S. District Court in the Virgin Islands. De Jongh said he was pleased with the selection of Wilma Lewis for this most prestigious post and said he looks forward to her confirmation by the United States Senate.
“Ms. Lewis will bring the experiences gained during a long and distinguished legal career to the federal bench in the Virgin Islands and it bodes well for us as a people to have yet another opportunity for a Virgin Islander to sit on the bench of the U.S. District Court in the territory,” de Jongh said. He offered his congratulations to Lewis who is the current Assistant Secretary for Land and Minerals Management at the Department of the Interior, a position she has held since 2009.
Prior to her current position, she served briefly as Senior Advisor to the Secretary of the Interior. She previously served as the Department’s Associate Solicitor for General Law from 1993 to 1995 and Inspector General from 1995 to 1998. From 2007 to 2008, Lewis was the Managing Associate General Counsel for Litigation at the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation. Lewis served as the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia from 1998 to 2001, having previously served as an Assistant United States Attorney from 1986 to 1993, during which time she was Assistant Chief of the Civil Division from 1989 to 1993 and Deputy Chief of the Civil Division in 1993.
Lewis also has significant experience in private practice, first as an associate at Steptoe & Johnson LLP from 1981 to 1986 and later as a partner at Crowell & Moring LLP from 2001 to 2007. Lewis received her J.D. in 1981 from Harvard Law School and her B.A. with distinction in 1978 from Swarthmore College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
De Jongh said today, “Wilma Lewis has a long and distinguished record of public service and I am confident she will serve on the federal bench with distinction.” The governor reaffirmed his commitment to continue the lobbying effort in Washington to have federal judges who are appointed in the Virgin Islands serve a life-term judgeship as is the case in many U.S. jurisdictions and territories including nearby Puerto Rico. Presently, federal judges in the Virgin Islands serve a ten-year term. “I look forward to her confirmation and welcoming Wilma Lewis to the U.S. District Court where she will replace distinguished jurist Raymond Finch of St. Croix who has retired and join Chief Judge Curtis V. Gomez of St. Thomas on the federal bench,” said de Jongh.
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