Judge Errol Arthur is a Magistrate Judge in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia (“D.C. Superior Court”). Since his appointment in 2010, he has served in the Criminal Division, Domestic Violence Division, and Family Court. He previously served as the Presiding Magistrate Judge. Judge Arthur has presided over numerous bench trials in neglect and abuse cases, as well as arraignments and detention hearings in both juvenile and adult cases. Judge Arthur has also served on numerous court committees, as a visiting faculty member of Harvard Law School’s Trial Advocacy Workshop, and as Chair of the Washington Bar Association’s Judicial Council.
Prior to his appointment to the Court, Judge Arthur joined the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (PDS) as a staff attorney in 1999, and opened his own law practice in 2002. While at PDS and in private practice, he represented individuals in the D.C. Superior Court, Maryland’s Circuit and District Courts, United States Parole Commission, and the District of Columbia Department Youth Rehabilitation Services. In 2008, Judge Arthur was appointed as Chairman of the District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics, and served as an adjunct professor and supervising attorney with the Howard University School of Law’s Criminal Justice Clinic. A native Washingtonian, Judge Arthur graduated of St. John’s College High School in 1990, and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Maryland in 1994. He received his law degree from the Howard University School of Law in 1998. Following law school, Judge Arthur clerked for the Honorable Mary A. Gooden Terrell in the D.C. Superior Court.
