The Hon. Colleen Kollar-Kotelly (Ret.) is a senior district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. She was nominated to the seat by Bill Clinton on January 7, 1997. Kollar-Kotelly was confirmed by the United States Senate on March 20, 1997, and received her judicial commission six days later. She assumed senior status on February 21, 2023.
During her tenure on the federal bench, Kollar-Kotelly was appointed by Chief Justice John Roberts to serve as a member of the Judicial Conference Committee on Financial Disclosure and to a seven-year term as Presiding Judge of the United States Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
She began her judicial career as an associate judge for the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in 1984. During her tenure, Kollar-Kotelly was Deputy Presiding Judge of the Criminal Division (1995 to 1997).
Prior to joining the bench, she was chief legal counsel to Saint Elizabeths Hospital (1972 to 1984) and was an attorney in the Criminal Division of the United States Department of Justice (1969 to 1972).
Kollar-Kotelly received a B.A. from the Catholic University of America in 1965. She then completed a J.D. at the Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law, in 1968.
After graduating from law school, Kollar-Kotelly began her legal career as a law clerk to the Hon. Catherine B. Kelly with the District of Columbia Court of Appeals.
Kollar-Kotelly was a Fellow of the American Bar Association and a founding member of the Thurgood Marshall Inn of Court. She also chaired the Board of the Art Trust for Superior Court, and she taught mental health and the law as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University School of Medicine.
She was born in New York City, New York.