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Person:description | "Councilmember Mary M. Cheh is committed to good government, law reform,\ \ and serving her constituents in Ward 3 and neighbors throughout the District.\ \ Mary is known as a common-sense investigator with a firm belief in the power of\ \ oversight and accountability. Prior to joining the Council, at the request of\ \ then-Councilmember Kathy Patterson, Mary served as pro bono special counsel to\ \ the Council of the District of Columbia\u2019s Judiciary Committee during its\ \ 2003 investigation into police handling of protests and demonstrations. The report\ \ drafted as a result of her work led to model legislation that protects citizen\u2019\ s rights and provides police officers with clear guidelines. She has also worked\ \ on international law reform projects in countries such as Tajikistan, Bosnia,\ \ and Kosovo.\nMary has served as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in Washington,\ \ D.C.; worked pro bono for the Centre for Applied Legal Studies in South Africa;\ \ served as a consultant to the National Institute of Justice and the President\u2019\ s Commission on Organized Crime; chaired the subcommittee on criminal justice for\ \ the D.C. Circuit Court\u2019s Task Force on Gender; and has served as a member\ \ of the Rules Committee of the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces and on the\ \ Board of Directors of the National Institute of Military Justice. A former member\ \ of the ACLU Board and current Vice-Chair of the ACLU Screening Committee, Mary\ \ Cheh is an avid defender of civil liberties. She was also a Founder of the Animal\ \ Welfare Project, which worked with community leaders, activists, and government\ \ officials to craft model animal welfare legislation. Mary also founded Project\ \ Re-Entry, a pro bono law reform project that aims to reduce recidivism and assist\ \ ex-offenders in their return to productive lives.\nAs a tenured law professor\ \ at George Washington University, Mary serves as the Elyce Zenoff Research Professor\ \ of Law while teaching and writing primarily in the areas of constitutional law\ \ and criminal procedure. She chairs the GW Law Public Interest Committee, which\ \ assists students in providing legal services to the underserved, and she works\ \ with students on community and environmental pro bono projects. Ms. Cheh joined\ \ the GW Law School faculty in 1979 after being in private practice with Fried Frank\ \ Harris Shriver & Kampelman in Washington, D.C. and serving as a law clerk to the\ \ Chief Justice of the New Jersey Supreme Court. Mary has been honored by the University\ \ with an Award for Community Service and with a teaching award from the Law Association\ \ for Women.\nFinally, Mary has lived in Ward 3 since she moved to the District\ \ in the late 1970s. She currently resides in the Forest Hills neighborhood. Mary\u2019\ s two daughters, Jane and Nora Lewis, were born and raised here, both attending\ \ Murch Elementary and Georgetown Day School. Mary is a former member of the Murch\ \ after-school board, volunteered as a Stoddert soccer coach (and a licensed referee),\ \ and is a former member of the Stoddert Board. Mary is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate\ \ of Douglass College and holds law degrees from Rutgers University and Harvard\ \ Law School. She is admitted to practice in D.C., New Jersey, Massachusetts, and\ \ before federal courts." | eng | us_plural_legislators | plural-eb2f5899242d5932599369a0eb50b4ef3b4e37c0 | |||