Incoming first-year students at The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law (Catholic Law) acknowledged their future roles as lawyers and public citizens by reciting an induction pledge at the close of the orientation program on August 17. Held in the Louise H. Keelty and James Keelty, Jr. Atrium, the induction ceremony included a welcome by Dean Stephen C. Payne and brief remarks by the Honorable Jennifer M. Anderson ’84, Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, who afterward led the recitation of the pledge.

Beginning her legal career as an associate at Cadwalder, Wickersham & Taft, Judge Anderson has worked in public interest law for more than three decades. Starting as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia, Judge Anderson ultimately moved to the Fifth District Community Prosecution’s pilot project in 1996, only to be selected a year later to serve as a special prosecutor for the National Church Arson Task Force. In the decade following her fifteen months in that role, she acted as lead prosecutor in a number of high-profile cases, including the trial of serial arsonist Thomas Sweatt, who gained notoriety in 2003 and 2004 for setting more than three hundred fires throughout the District of Columbia. Having pled guilty to two homicides and forty-five arsons, Sweatt received a sentence of life imprisonment.

President George W. Bush twice nominated Judge Anderson for the position of Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. The United States Senate favorably received her 2005 re-nomination and confirmed it through a voice vote, with her swearing-in occurring on October 27, 2006.

During Catholic Law’s induction ceremony, Judge Anderson asked the group of new students to raise their right hands and read in unison the following words which she recited: “I, [name], do solemnly swear or affirm that to the best of my ability I will be professional and ethical in all that I do as a member of the community at the Columbus School of Law; I will treat all persons whom I encounter with fairness, integrity, and civility; and I will strive to use my knowledge and skills to advance society, improve the quality of justice, and increase access to justice for all.”

After incoming students had taken the pledge, the ceremony concluded with a networking reception that allowed members of the classes of 2026 and 2027 to mingle with each other, their families, and with Catholic Law faculty and staff. Click here to view other photos from the event on Catholic Law's Facebook page.