Colleen Kollar-Kotelly

Colleen Constance Kollar-Kotelly (born April 17, 1943) is an American lawyer serving as a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia and was previously presiding judge of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. Education and career Kollar-Kotelly was born in New York City, the daughter of Irene (née Crowley) and Konstantine Kollar, an environmental engineer. Her paternal grandparents, Paul and Anna Kollár, were emigrants from Hungary. Konstantine Kollar worked at the U.S. Department of Commerce, where he was responsible for the planning of water resources, and he also served as a consultant to the World Health Organization and the Pan American Health Organization. From 1948 to 1959, he worked in U.S. foreign assistance programs in Mexico, Ecuador and Venezuela, where Kollar-Kotelly attended bilingual schools. She attended Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School in Washington, D.C. She earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Catholic University of America (Delta Epsilon Honor Society) and her Juris Doctor from Catholic University of America's Columbus School of Law (Moot court Board of Governors) in 1968. From 1968 to 1969, Kollar-Kotelly served as a law clerk to Judge Catherine B. Kelly of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. From 1969 to 1972, Kollar-Kotelly was an attorney for the Department of Justice, Criminal Division, Appellate Section, after which she became chief legal counsel for St. Elizabeths Hospital, Department of Health and Human Services, from 1972 to 1984. On October 3, 1984, Kollar-Kotelly was nominated as an Associate Judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia by President Ronald Reagan; she took her oath of office on October 21. She served as Deputy Presiding Judge of the Criminal Division from 1997 to 1997.