Deborah K. Chasanow

Deborah K. Chasanow is a United States federal judge. She presided over the Bethesda vs. Interplay case.

Biography
District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow was born in Washington, D.C. in 1948. In 1966, Judge Chasanow entered Rutgers University. While at Rutgers, she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and ultimately received her B.A. in 1970. From 1970-74, Judge Chasanow attended Stanford Law School, where she achieved her J.D.

Upon graduation from law school, Judge Chasanow served as law clerk to the Honorable Judge David L. Cahoon, of the Montgomery County Circuit Court, Maryland. Thereafter, she entered private practice in 1975, at the Washington, D.C. firm of Cole and Groner. From 1975 to 1987, Judge Chasanow served in the Office of the Maryland Attorney General, first as an Assistant Attorney General, followed by a term as Chief of the Criminal Appeals Division, from 1979 to 1987.

In 1987, Judge Chasanow was appointed as United States Magistrate Judge for the District of Maryland. She remained in this position until 1993, when President Clinton nominated Judge Chasanow to the United States District Court for the District of Maryland. The nomination was made on August 6, 1993, the Senate confirmed the nomination on October 18, 1993, and Judge Chasanow received her commission on October 20, 1993.

Judge Chasanow is a past lecturer of constitutional criminal procedure at the University of Baltimore Law School, from 1978-84. She taught at the University of Maryland Law School, from 1987-93, and again in the Summer of 1998, when she taught Evidence. Judge Chasanow also teaches Evidence for the American Academy of Judicial Education. In addition, she has taught courses or lectured at the Maryland Institute for Continuing Professional Education of Lawyers (MICPEL).

Admitted to the Maryland Bar in 1974, Judge Chasanow is also a member of the District of Columbia Bar (1975), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (1976), and the U. S. Supreme Court Bar (1979).

Judge Chasanow is a member of many professional organizations, such as the Prince George’s County Bar Association and the Women’s Bar Association. As a member of the Maryland State Bar Association, Judge Chasanow served on its committee on pattern jury instructions, criminal, is a past chair on the section on criminal law and practice, and was a council member on the section on litigation. She is also a past president of the Marlborough American Inn of Court and a member of the National Association of Women Judges, the Federal Magistrate Judges Association, and the District Judges Association.