Gerhard A. Gesell
Judge Gesell was appointed U.S. District Judge for the District of Columbia in December 1967.
He graduated from Yale Law School in 1935. He was employed by the Securities and Exchange
Commission from 1935-1941 in various legal capacities, including Special Counsel for the Temporary
National Economic Committee of the Congress and Technical Advisor to the Chairman. In 1941 he left
the Commission to become a partner at Covington & Burling, where he remained until his appointment to
the Court. While at the law firm, he also served as Chief Assistant Counsel for the Joint Congressional
Committee on the Investigation of the Pearl Harbor Attack (1945-1947), and Chairman of the President’s
Commission on Equal Opportunity in the Armed Forces (1962-1964). Judge Gesell died on February 19,
1993.