Wilma Antoinette Lewis (born June 28, 1956) is a United States district judge of the District Court of the Virgin Islands. She previously served as the first female United States Attorney for the District of Columbia.

Early life and education

Lewis was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico and raised in

Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands Saint Thomas ( da, Sankt Thomas) is one of the Virgin Islands in the Caribbean Sea which, together with Saint John, Water Island, Hassel Island, and Saint Croix, form a county-equivalent and constituent district of the United States Virgin ...

. Her parents, Walter and Juta Lewis, were both federal civil servants, working for the United States Postal Service and the United States Customs Service, respectively. Lewis graduated as the valedictorian of her class at All Saints Cathedral School in 1974 and earned degrees from

Swarthmore College Swarthmore College ( , ) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1864, with its first classes held in 1869, Swarthmore is one of the earliest coeduca ...

in 1978 and

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each class ...

in 1981.

Legal career and government service

She worked in the litigation department at Steptoe & Johnson until 1986, when she joined the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, D.C. She rose through the civil division to become deputy chief of the division in 1993. That year, she departed for the United States Department of the Interior, where she served as Associate Solicitor for the Division of General Law. In 1995, she was nominated by

President Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again ...

and confirmed by the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

as Inspector General of the Department of the Interior. In 1998, Lewis was nominated and confirmed as United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, the first woman to serve in that position. She served from January 1998 to April 2001, when she became a partner in the litigation group at Crowell & Moring. From October 2007 to December 2008, she served as managing associate general counsel at Freddie Mac. In 2009, President Barack Obama nominated Lewis to be Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Land and Minerals Management.

District court service

In 2011 she was appointed to the District Court of the Virgin Islands. In August 2013, she was named to a seven-year term as Chief Judge of the court. Her term as Chief Judge ended on April 27, 2021.

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Wilma A. 1956 births Living people 21st-century American judges 21st-century American women judges African-American judges African-American women lawyers 21st-century African-American lawyers 21st-century American lawyers American women lawyers Assistant United States Attorneys Harvard Law School alumni Judges of the United States District Court of the Virgin Islands People from Santurce, Puerto Rico Swarthmore College alumni United States Attorneys for the District of Columbia United States Department of the Interior officials United States district court judges appointed by Barack Obama United States Inspectors General by name