Hon. David W. Lease, Esq.

Hon. David W. Lease, Esq. has been serving as an Associate Judge on the Montgomery County Circuit Court, 6th Judicial Circuit, since January 19, 2018. He was born in Washington, DC, in 1965. Judge Lease attended Charles W. Woodward High School in Rockville, Maryland, and earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology from the University of Maryland, College Park, in 1988. He received his Juris Doctor, summa cum laude, from the University of Baltimore School of Law in 1991. He was admitted to the Maryland Bar in 1991. Before his judicial appointment, he was an associate at Gordon, Feinblatt, Rothman, Hoffberger & Hollander, LLC, from 1991 to 1997, and at Stein, Sperling, Bennett, De Jong, Driscoll, Greenfeig & Metro, P.C., from 1997 to 2000. He co-founded and served as Principal at Smith, Lease & Goldstein, LLC, from 2000 to 2018.

Judge Lease has been actively involved in several legal and community organizations, including serving as a Member of the Maryland Criminal Defense Attorneys’ Association from 1998 to 2018 and the Board of Directors of Court-Appointed Special Advocates of Montgomery County from 2001 to 2018 (secretary from 2004 to 2006, vice-president from 2006 to 2008, and president from 2008 to 2010). He has also been a Master of the Bench at the Montgomery County, Maryland Inn since 2008 and a Fellow of the Maryland State Bar Foundation since 2010. His extensive legal experience and dedication to public service make him a respected and influential figure in the Maryland judiciary.