WASHINGTON, D.C. (TIP): President Joe Biden has nominated Indian American magistrate judge Errol Rajesh Arthur to be an associate judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia for the term of fifteen years. The White House sent the nomination of Arthur, son of Indo-Guyanese immigrants, who has served as a magistrate judge on the Superior Court since 2010, to the Senate for confirmation Wednesday.

Arthur has served in the Criminal Division, Domestic Violence Division, and Family Court, according to his official bio released by the White House. He is currently presiding magistrate judge and serves on the chief judge’s judicial leadership team.

From 2002 to 2010, Arthur was a solo practitioner and then a named partner at Arthur & Arthur, PLLC, where he represented clients in criminal, family, and civil matters.

From 1999 to 2002, Arthur worked as a staff attorney at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia. Arthur served as a clerk for Judge Mary A. Gooden Terrell on the District of Columbia Superior Court from 1998 to 1999.

A native Washingtonian, Judge Arthur graduated from St. John’s College High School in 1990, and he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Maryland in 1994.

He received his law degree from the Howard University School of Law in 1998. Arthur has also served on numerous court committees, a visiting faculty member of Harvard Law School’s Trial Advocacy Workshop, and Chair of the Washington Bar Association’s Judicial Council, according to DC Judicial Nomination Commission.

In 2008, Judge Arthur was appointed as Chairman of the District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics, and he served as an adjunct professor and supervising attorney with the Howard University School of Law’s Criminal Justice Clinic.

Endorsing Arthur for the post last January, the South Asian Bar Association of Washington, DC (SABA-DC) noted that his appointment would enhance the diversity of the DC Superior Court bench. “As the son of Indo-Guyanese immigrants who moved to the United States to attend college and build their lives in the District, Arthur brings a unique perspective to the bench,” it said in a letter to the DC Judicial Nomination Commission.

“In a city full of immigrants like the District, we can think of no more important perspective to the Court to increase access and acceptability of justice,” SABA-DC said requesting the commission to include Arthur in the list of judicial nominees sent to Biden.