Gerald Bruce Lee

Prior to his appointment to the United States District Court, Lee was a trial judge with the 19th Judicial Circuit of Virginia (Fairfax) for six and one-half years. As a Circuit Court Judge in Virginia's largest and busiest trial court, he tried a wide variety of cases, both jury and non-jury. His trial docket included cases involving commercial law, products liability, personal injury, medical malpractice, contracts, and criminal law.

In the 2011 case of USA v. Ishmael Jones, a pen name, Lee ruled in summary judgment for the government that Jones, a former CIA officer, had violated his agreement with the Agency by failing to obtain pre-publication approval for his book.

In 2003, Lee dismissed the kidnapping and murder charges against Jay E. Lentz, a former naval intelligence officer, even though a jury had found him guilty. It marked the first time a judge dismissed a jury verdict in a federal death penalty case. Earlier in the case, Lee advised a witness that if she cried he would stop her testimony, a move that is unusual in that it is rare for a judge to preview testimony in a death penalty hearing or restrict how witnesses can act or what they can say.

Lee was educated at American University where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1973, and a Juris Doctor in 1976 from American University's Washington College of Law. Lee worked in private practice in Alexandria, Virginia until 1992, when he became a Circuit court judge on the 19th Judicial Circuit of Virginia, Fairfax Circuit Court. Lee was nominated to his present position as United States District Judge by President Bill Clinton on May 22, 1998, and received his commission on October 1, 1998. He retired from active service on September 30, 2017.

In April 1998, Virginia's United States Senators Chuck Robb and John Warner recommended Lee for appointment to the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, to fill the seat vacated when Judge James C. Cacheris took senior status. President Clinton made the nomination on May 22, 1998, which was confirmed by the Senate in unanimous vote on September 28, 1998. He received his commission on October 1, 1998. He retired from active service on September 30, 2017.

Lee has been a member of the legal community for twenty-five years. Subsequent to his appointment to the Fairfax Circuit Court in 1992, he became known throughout the legal community for his handling of complex civil cases, his efforts to improve the court's use of technology, and his commitment to community service.

In 1990, Governor Douglas Wilder appointed Lee to serve on the Board of Directors of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, the managers of Washington National and Dulles International Airports. During his tenure on the board both airports were in the midst of modernization and expansion.

As an attorney, Lee was involved in a number of notable cases. He was one of the first to assert the "battered woman defense" in a murder case in 1978 and his client was acquitted of murder. He successfully defended a Vietnam veteran in a criminal case and arranged for the veteran to receive proper medical treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and drug treatment. As counsel for local civil rights organization he defended the principal of a local high school against disciplinary action after school officials learned he was in an interracial marriage. He defended a number of corporations against commercial and employment claims.

Gerald Bruce Lee (born November 27, 1952) is a former United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.