September 2008
JUDGE RICARDO H. HINOJOSA, who has served on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas since 1983, also serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Texas School of Law. From 1976 until 1983, he was an attorney with the Ewers & Toothaker Law Firm in McAllen, Texas, and was a partner at the time he became a judge. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and with honors from the University of Texas at Austin in 1972, and earned his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1975. Judge Hinojosa received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Texas Ex-Students’ Association in 2001. He served as member (1979-83) and chairman (1981-83) of the Pan American University Board of Regents and in 1986 he received the Distinguished Service Award from the Pan American University Alumni Association.
JUDGE RUBEN CASTILLO has served as a U.S. district judge for the Northern District of Illinois since 1994. From 1991-1994, he was a partner in the Chicago office of Kirkland & Ellis. He was the regional counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund from 1988-1991. Judge Castillo served as an assistant U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois from 1984-1988 and was previously with the firm of Jenner & Block. He is an adjunct professor of trial advocacy at Northwestern University School of Law, where he has taught since 1988. Judge Castillo received a B.A. degree from Loyola University of Chicago and a J.D. degree from Northwestern University School of Law, where he served on the editorial board of the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. Judge Castillo has been involved with the criminal justice system since 1978 when he was appointed as a deputy clerk for the local criminal courts, a position he maintained throughout college and law school.
CHIEF JUDGE WILLIAM K. SESSIONS III has served as a U.S. district judge for the District of Vermont since 1995. From 1978-1995, he was a partner with the Middlebury firm of Sessions, Keiner, Dumont & Barnes. He previously served in the Office of the Public Defender for Addison County. He has served as a professor at the Vermont Law School. Judge Sessions received a B.A. degree from Middlebury College and a J.D. degree from the George Washington School of Law.
MS. DABNEY FRIEDRICH served as associate counsel at the White House from 2003 until her appointment to the Sentencing Commission in December 2006. Prior to serving in that capacity, she was counsel to Chairman Orrin G. Hatch of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee from 2002-2003. From 1995 until 2002, she was an assistant U.S. attorney, first for the Southern District of California (1995-1997) and then for the Eastern District of Virginia (1998-2002). Prior to that (1994-1995), she was an associate in private practice at Latham & Watkins in San Diego. From 1992-1994, she was law clerk to now Chief Judge Thomas F. Hogan (U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia). Ms. Friedrich received her B.A. from Trinity University, her Diploma in Legal Studies from Oxford University, and her J.D. from Yale Law School.
MR. MICHAEL E. HOROWITZ is currently a partner with the law firm of Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft in Washington, D.C. Previously, he served in the Justice Department’s Criminal Division as Deputy Assistant Attorney General in 1999 and as chief of staff from 2000-2002. From 1991 through 1999, Mr. Horowitz was an assistant United States attorney in the Southern District of New York, where he served as deputy chief of the Criminal Division and chief of the Public Corruption Unit. His work on a complex, five-year corruption investigation earned him the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award. Mr. Horowitz received his B.A. summa cum laude from Brandeis University in 1984 and a J.D. magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1987.
MS. BERYL A. HOWELL serves as managing director, general counsel of the Washington, D.C. Office of Stroz Friedberg, LLC. She is the former general counsel of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, where she worked on a variety of criminal justice, technology and other issues before the Committee. Prior to her work on the Senate staff, Ms. Howell served as an assistant U.S. attorney and deputy chief of the Narcotics Section of the U.S. Attorney’s office in the Eastern District of New York. She was formerly an associate at Schulte, Roth & Zabel in New York City and a clerk for the Honorable Dickinson R. Debevoise in the District of New Jersey. During her tenure on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Ms. Howell worked for Senator Patrick J. Leahy (D-VT) (chairman and ranking member on the full Committee), and for the Technology and the Law Subcommittee and the Antitrust, Business Rights and Competition Subcommittee. Ms. Howell received her B.A. from from Bryn Mawr College and her J.D. from Columbia University School of Law, where she was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar.
MR. EDWARD F. REILLY, JR. was designated as chair of the U.S. Parole Commission by President George W. Bush on May 31, 2001. Prior to his appointment, he served one year in the Kansas House of Representatives and 28 years in the Kansas Senate. In the Legislature, he served as assistant majority leader, chairman of the Senate Committee on Federal and State Affairs, chairman of the Senate Insurance Subcommittee, and vice chairman of the Senate Elections Committee. Mr. Reilly has served four presidential administrations in various capacities.
MR. JONATHAN J. WROBLEWSKI was recently designated an ex-officio member of the United States Sentencing Commission, representing the Office of the Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice. Mr. Wroblewski serves as Director of the Office of Policy and Legislation in the Criminal Division of the Department. Previously, Mr. Wroblewski served as a trial attorney with the Civil Rights Division, and subsequently served in the United States Sentencing Commission as Deputy General Counsel and Director of Legislative and Public Affairs. He has taught at both The George Washington University National Law Center and George Mason University School of Law, and has studied at the University of Cambridge’s Institute of Criminology as a recipient of the Atlantic Fellowship in Public Policy. Mr. Wroblewski received his B.A., magna cum laude from Duke University, and his J.D. from Stanford Law School.
Visitors to the Commission’s web site at www.ussc.gov can browse as well as download a wide selection of Commission documents and materials. The web site provides links to other federal judicial agencies, and, among many selections, features information about federal sentencing statistics by state and district, Commission meeting minutes and hearing transcripts, and state sentencing commissions.
For additional information about the U.S. Sentencing Commission, contact:
Office of Legislative and Public Affairs
United States Sentencing Commission
One Columbus Circle, NE, Suite 2-500
Washington, DC 20002-8002
(202) 502-4500 ■ FAX: (202) 502-4699 ■ E-mail: pubaffairs@ussc.gov ■ www.ussc.gov