Ethically Speaking: Lawyers, Judges, and Social Media

Judge Herbert B. Dixon, Jr. is a senior judge on the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. He retired from full-time status in 2015 after thirty years of service. He was appointed to successive 15-year terms - first by President Ronald Reagan and subsequently by President William Clinton.

Judge Dixon is a former member of the ABA Board of Governors, the House of Delegates, and the Techshow Planning Board. He is a former chair of both the National Conference of State Trial Judges and the ABA Standing Committee on the American Judicial System. Judge Dixon serves on the ABA Journal Board of Editors, The Judges’ Journal Editorial Board, and is chair the Judicial Division Book Editorial Board.

While in active service with the Superior Court, Judge Dixon served as presiding judge of both the Civil Division and the Multi-Door Dispute Resolution Division of Superior Court and as co-chair of the Strategic Planning Leadership Council for the D.C. Courts, the entity charged with writing the strategic plan for the District of Columbia Courts and evaluating progress in achieving the goals and objectives of the plan. In addition, he served as chair of Superior Court’s Electronic Filing Pilot Project, which received national recognition for its success, and oversaw implementation of the Superior Court’s technology-enhanced courtroom project.

Judge Dixon is the technology columnist for The Judges’ Journal magazine and senior judicial adviser to the Center for Legal and Court Technology (formerly the Courtroom 21 Project), an initiative of the Marshall-Wythe Law School at the College of William & Mary and the National Center for State Courts.

Judge Dixon has received numerous awards, including the ABA Tort Trial & Insurance Practice Section (TIPS) Pursuit of Justice Award, for lawyers and judges who have shown outstanding merit and who excel in providing access to justice for all; the William R. McMahon Award by the National Conference of Specialized Court Judges, for leadership in the field of technology in the courts; and introduction into the Washington Bar Association’s Hall of Fame. Most recently, Judge Dixon was named the 2019 Judicial Honoree of the Year by the Bar Association of the District of Columbia.

Judge Dixon received his J.D. degree from the Georgetown University Law Center and a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Howard University. He is married to Phoebe Boykins Dixon. They have two adult children, both of whom are Ph.D. engineers.

Bernice Bouie Donald is a federal judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit. She first joined the court in 2011 after a nomination from President Barack Obama. Prior to her service on the Sixth Circuit, she served on the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee.

Donald graduated from Memphis State University with both her bachelor's and J.D. degrees in 1974 and 1979, respectively.

Ronald is a member of Dentons' Litigation and Dispute Resolution practice group. He has extensive experience in e-discovery and in the management of complex litigation and has served as a special master, arbitrator and mediator. He also consults on management and discovery of electronically stored information (“ESI”).

Ron Hedges was a United States Magistrate Judge in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey from 1986 to 2007. While a magistrate judge, he was the Compliance Judge for the Court Mediation Program, a member of the Lawyers Advisory Committee, and both a member of, and reporter for, the Civil Justice Reform Act Advisory Committee. From 2001 to 2005 he was a member of the Advisory Group of Magistrate Judges.

Ron was an adjunct professor at Seton Hall University School, where he taught mediation skills. He was an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center and remains an adjunct professor at Rutgers School of Law—Newark. He taught courses on electronic discovery and evidence at both these schools. Ron was a Fellow at the Center for Information Technology of Princeton University for 2010-11 and 2011-12. He is also a member of the College of the State Bar of Texas.