From the Bench: What Persuades, What Frustrates, and What Lawyers Should Know (Presented by the Federal Bar Association Professional Development Committee, General Division)

Hon. Jia M. Cobb, District Court Judge | U.S. District Courts – District of Columbia

Judge Jia M. Cobb was appointed to the United States District Court for the District of Columbia in November 2021.

• Education & Credentials

She received a B.A., magna cum laude, from Northwestern University. She then received a J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School, where she also served as Coordinating Editor of the Harvard Law Review.

• Recognition & Leadership

The American Bar Association rated Judge Cobb “Well Qualified” in connection with her nomination to the federal bench, and her November 2021 appointment made her the fourth African American woman to serve on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

• Professional Involvement

Judge Cobb has taught trial advocacy as an adjunct professor at American University Washington College of Law and as a visiting faculty member at Harvard Law School’s Trial Advocacy Workshop. She previously served as an elected member of the District of Columbia Bar’s Criminal Law and Individual Rights Section Steering Committee.

• Experience

After law school, Judge Cobb clerked for the Honorable Diane P. Wood on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit. Following her clerkship, she worked as a trial attorney at the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia (PDS) from 2006 to 2012. At PDS, Judge Cobb supervised incoming attorneys and was a member of the Forensic Practice Group. In 2012, Judge Cobb joined Relman Colfax PLLC, a national plaintiff-side civil rights firm based in Washington, D.C. At Relman Colfax, Judge Cobb handled a variety of complex civil rights litigation matters, including those involving allegations of housing discrimination, employment discrimination, and police misconduct. She was a partner at Relman Colfax from 2019 until her appointment to the bench.

Hon. Sean A. Camoni, Magistrate Judge | U.S. District Courts – Middle District of Pennsylvania

Judge Camoni took the bench in July 2025 after serving as an AUSA for nearly 10 years.

• Education & Credentials

Judge Camoni earned his undergraduate degree from Villanova University and his J.D. from Seton Hall University School of Law.

• Recognition & Leadership

He rose to serve as a Deputy Chief of the Criminal Division in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania before his appointment to the bench.

• Experience

He began his legal career as a litigation associate at Sullivan & Cromwell in New York. Before taking the bench, he served for nearly a decade as an Assistant United States Attorney in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, and earlier as a law clerk to the late U.S. District Judge James M. Munley of the same district. Appointed a full-time United States Magistrate Judge, he was sworn in in July 2025 and sits in Williamsport.

David Labkowski | Labkowski Law, P.A.

David is based in Miami and practices in New York and Florida, focusing on high-stakes commercial litigation in federal and state courts.

• Education & Credentials

David earned his J.D. from New York Law School, where he received the Dean’s Merit Scholarship and made the Dean’s List, after undergraduate studies at Florida International University’s Landon Undergraduate School of Business (Dean’s List). He is admitted in New York and Florida; before the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second, Ninth, Eleventh, and D.C. Circuits; and in the Southern, Eastern, and Northern Districts of New York and the Southern, Middle, and Northern Districts of Florida.

• Recognition & Leadership

He serves as a Director of the Miami Beach Bar Association.

• Professional Involvement

David is a member of the Federal Bar Association, where he serves on the Professional Development Committee, and a member of the American Association of Jewish Lawyers & Jurists and the Jewish Lawyers Association of Miami.

• Experience

He leads Labkowski Law, P.A., which currently has three associates, litigating commercial disputes — contract, copyright, judgment-enforcement, cross-border, and appellate matters — in New York and Florida state and federal courts, including the Commercial Division of the New York Supreme Court and the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Second and D.C. Circuits.

SESSION 1 – From the Bench: What Persuades, What Frustrates, and What Lawyers Should Know | Hon. Jia M. Cobb & Hon. Sean A. Camoni & David Labkowski | 2:00pm – 3:00pm

What makes a judge trust your argument—and what causes that trust to unravel? Join United States District Judge Jia M. Cobb and United States Magistrate Judge Sean A. Camoni for a candid conversation from the Bench’s perspective about what works, what falls flat, and what frustrates the Bench in everyday federal practice. From focused briefs and useful replies to direct answers at oral argument, the panel will explore how lawyers can make their strongest points without sacrificing credibility. The discussion will also address procedural missteps, counterproductive combativeness, meaningful discovery meet-and-confers, and when to seek judicial intervention. Attendees will hear practical perspectives on the habits judges appreciate, the mistakes they wish lawyers would stop making, and how preparation, candor, and sound judgment can make advocacy more persuasive.