
The Hon. Mary-Margaret Anderson (Ret.), a retired administrative law judge with the California Office of Administrative Hearings, is now serving as chair of The National Judicial College Board of Trustees. Judge Anderson first joined the board in 2016 and was elected by her fellow board members to serve a one-year term as chair starting in January 2025. The National Judicial College is the nation’s oldest, largest and most widely attended school for judges.
On the Office of Administrative Hearings, a central panel agency, Judge Anderson presided over the full range of cases including those brought by state, county, and local agencies, such as school districts from 1997 until her retirement in 2017. Judge Anderson is a past president of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary (NAALJ). She also served on the Judges’ Journal Editorial Board, the quarterly magazine published by the American Bar Association’s Judicial Division, for eight years, the last two as co-chair. She has taught ethics, evidence, and expert evidence to new and experienced administrative law judges in a variety of settings.
The Hon. Leslie A. Hayashi (Ret.), who previously served as secretary and as treasurer of the board, was selected as chair-elect. Judge Hayashi served for over 25 years as a district court judge for the First Circuit in Honolulu, Hawai`i. She taught at The NJC for more than 20 years. In addition to teaching, Judge Hayashi has dedicated herself to educating the public about the law, writing numerous books and articles and creating videos.
The Hon. Samuel A. Thumma was elected as secretary of the board. Judge Thumma has served on the Arizona Court of Appeals, Division One, in Phoenix since 2012 and was chief judge from 2017 to 2019. Previously he served as a trial judge (criminal and juvenile rotations) on the Arizona Superior Court in Maricopa County for five years. Among his many roles within the American Bar Association, he serves as a presidential appointee to the Standing Committee on Lawyer Referral and Information Services (2023‒present) and to the Advisory Council of the ABA Task Force on Law and Artificial Intelligence (2023-present).
Darcee S. Siegel, Esq., of Bal Harbour, Florida, will retain her position as treasurer, which she began in 2024. The former city attorney of North Miami Beach, Florida, and an in-house municipal attorney since 1988, Siegel is a Florida Supreme Court-certified civil mediator. She has served in many leadership positions in the American Bar Association, including the Board of Governors, chair of the Government and Public Sector Division, and secretary/diversity officer of the Tort Trial Insurance Practice Section. She continues to serve as a member of the House of Delegates. She has been a trustee of the NJC since 2019.
Robert Hunter, Esq., of Cashiers, NC, is now the immediate past chair of the board. Hunter had a long legal career in Alabama, including representation to five governors. He was the senior vice president, general counsel and secretary for Altec Inc., based in Birmingham, Alabama. Hunter’s many leadership positions in the legal profession include having served as president of the International Association of Defense Counsel (2008-09), president of Lawyers for Civil Justice (2014-15), chair of the Board of Directors of the Product Liability Advisory Council; and dean of the Corporate Counsel College.
Trustee Brandon Barkhuff was renominated to the board. As General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer of NV Energy, Barkhuff oversees all of the company’s legal activities and compliance obligations, while also providing strategic legal and business guidance as part of the senior leadership team. He is currently a trustee for the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, and previously served on the board of directors for Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation and The Shade Tree.
Trustee Susan H. Briggs was also renominated to the board. Briggs is the Managing Partner of the Charlotte, North Carolina office for Quintairos, Prieto, Wood & Boyer, P.A. As a Board-Certified Specialist in workers’ compensation law and a seasoned trial lawyer, her practice primarily centers on workers’ compensation litigation and appellate practice. She is an active member of the Lumbee Tribe of Native Americans.
The board of trustees also added several new members to its ranks, including:
- Linda Ammons, dean emeritus at Widener University, and adjunct professor of law at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She served as counsel to the president of Widener for legal education, after retiring as associate provost and dean of the law school in 2014. Dean Ammons is a Distinguished Faculty member of The NJC, serving since 1993.
- Matthew Archer-Beck, Senior Adjudication Counsel in the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Office of the General Counsel. His work involves advising the SEC on the resolution of administrative appeals from the decisions of administrative law judges and self-regulatory organizations. Archer-Beck is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation and currently serves as President of the National Native American Bar Association. He also currently serves on the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Public Education, the Cornerstones of Democracy Commission, and as Vice-Chair of the Government and Public Sector Lawyers Division.
- Hon. Robert S. Cohen, administrative law judge for the State of Florida. Judge Cohen was appointed as the director and chief judge of the Division of Administrative Hearings in 2003. Since October 2019, he has served as managing judge for the Southern District. Judge Cohen has served as Chair of the National Conference of the Administrative Law Judiciary, is a Past President of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary, and a past Treasurer of the National Association of Workers’ Compensation Judiciary.
- Hon. David L. Welch has over forty years of public service at all three levels of government and with all three branches of government. He was appointed U.S. Administrative Law Judge in 2012 and is currently serving as chief judge of a federal agency in Washington, D.C. Previously, he served three elected terms as Judge of the Monroe Circuit Court in Bloomington, Indiana, a court of general jurisdiction and record with over 95,000 Indiana dispositions. He is a past president of the Federal Administrative Law Judges Conference (FALJC) and the Immediate Past Chair of the ABA’s National Conference of the Administrative Law Judiciary (NCALJ). He co-chaired the ABA Judicial Division’s Task Force on Decisional Independence. He accumulated 30 hours of academic credit at the NJC and taught law as an adjunct at the Indiana University School of Public & Environmental Affairs for over 30 years. Judge Welch’s appointment to the NJC Board will be effective after his formal election at the ABA midyear meeting.
In addition to new appointments to the Board of Trustees, the Hon. Melissa Lin Jones is now chair of the Faculty Council. In October 2019, Judge Jones joined the United States Department of Labor as a member of the Benefits Review Board and administrative appeals judge. From 2006 through 2009, she was an administrative law judge with the D.C. Department of Employment Services, Office of Hearings and Adjudication, Administrative Hearings Division, and from 2010 through 2015, she adjudicated workers’ compensation appeals as an administrative appeals judge for the D.C. Department of Employment Services, Compensation Review Board. Judge Jones was an administrative law judge with the Social Security Administration from 2015 through 2019.
The Hon. Efrain Alvarado (Ret.) also rejoined the Faculty Council. Judge Alvarado previously served as a justice of the Bronx County Supreme Court in New York, Criminal Term in the Twelfth Judicial District of New York.

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