Colleen Kollar-Kotelly served as the presiding judge for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court beginning with her appointment in May 2002 by former US Chief Justice William Rehnquist. She was appointed to the United States District Court in May 1997. 

 

Kollar-Kotelly received a bachelor’s degree in 1965 from The Catholic University of America and a JD in 1968 from Columbus School of Law, The Catholic University of America. Following law school, she served as law clerk to Judge Catherine B. Kelly of the District of Columbia Court of Appeals. 

 

From 1969 to 1972, Kollar-Kotelly was an attorney in the criminal division of the US Department of Justice and then served as the chief legal counsel to Saint Elizabeths Hospital until 1984. She was appointed associate judge of the DC Superior Court in October 1984 and served as deputy presiding judge of the criminal division from 1995 until her appointment to the federal bench. 

 

Judge Kollar-Kotelly has been an adjunct professor at Georgetown University School of Medicine in a joint teaching program on mental health and the law, and chair of the board of the Art Trust for Superior Court.  

 

Kollar-Kotelly was appointed by former US Chief Justice William Rehnquist to serve as a member of the Judicial Conference Committee on Financial Disclosure from June 2000 through May 2002

 

Prior to her joining the FISC, Kollar-Kotelly was most noted as the judge who presided over the Microsoft anti-trust trial. The US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit appointed Kollar-Kotelly, whose background is in criminal law, after a computer selected her randomly from a field of 10 candidates.

 

Her courtroom experience prior to the Microsoft trial included numerous murder cases, a controversial call on agricultural biotechnology and the labeling of some genetically altered foods, and a high-profile decision that awarded $355 million to an American killed by Iranian terrorists. The Humane Society of the United States also lauded Kollar-Kotelly for her decision to ban the slaughter of migratory birds in Virginia. Her lack of experience in business cases, specifically antitrust cases, worried some legal experts at the time of the Microsoft trial.

Official Bio

New Microsoft judge in the spotlight (by Rachel Konrad, CNET News)