RESUME OF THE

HONORABLE RICARDO URBINA

UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

 

Nominated by President Clinton, Judge Urbina served as a U.S. District Judge in   Washington, D.C. from July of 1994 until his retirement in May of 2012.   He came to the federal bench directly from the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, where he was a judge from 1981 to 1994.   From 1985 to 1988, he served as Presiding Judge of the Superior Court’s Family Division.  During that time he chaired a committee that developed critical child support guidelines that ultimately became law in the District.  Just before his retirement from the federal bench, Judge Urbina received the prestigious Brennan Award from the University of Virginia for his deep respect and abiding loyalty to the rule of law and the Constitution.

 

Judge Urbina obtained his B.A. from Georgetown University in 1967 and graduated from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1970.  His first job as a lawyer was as staff attorney from 1970 to 1972 for the D.C. Public Defender Service.  After a two-year stint in private practice, Judge Urbina joined the faculty of Howard University Law School, where he taught from1974 until he was appointed to the Superior Court bench in 1981.  While at Howard, Judge Urbina directed the University’s Criminal Justice Program.  Thereafter, for more than twenty years while on the bench, Judge Urbina taught a highly regarded course, The American Jury, at George Washinton University Law School. 

 

Both in high school and as a Georgetown undergraduate, Judge Urbina was a nationally ranked competitive runner.  His high school records in the 800 and 1000 yard races still stand.  And in college he also set national records and won the NCAA Championship in the 880.   After graduating and while in his first year of law school, he sought to become a member of the U.S. Olympic track team and barely missed making it: he placed fourth in the tryouts for the top three, missing out by one stride..

 

Judge Urbina’s parents came to New York in the nineteen-twenties, his mother from Puerto Rico and his father from Honduras.  In 1946, when Judge Urbina was born, the family was living in Manhattan.  They moved to Queens when he was in the fourth grade.   He has two older brothers.

 

Judge Urbina is married to Coreen Saxe.  He has a son, Ian, who is an investigative reporter for the New York Times, and a daughter, Adrienne, who is the

Subscription & Social Media Editor for The Outlaw Ocean Project, and a grandson.