The_Info_Web/10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Thomas A. Flannery.md

category	created	updated	tags	summary	born	died	location
Law Enforcement & Legal	2026-05-01	2026-10-15	Person PROMIS INSLAW Lawyer Judge	Thomas A. Flannery was U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia from 1969 to 1971, commissioned the system that became PROMIS in 1969, and was a federal district judge from December 1971.	1918-05-10	2007-09-20	Washington, D.C.

Thomas A. Flannery was born May 10, 1918, in Washington, D.C. He was an assistant U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia from 1950 to 1962, in private practice from 1962 to 1969, and U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia from 1969 to 1971, appointed under President Richard Nixon.¹ In that capacity, he directed the formation of the team that designed the PROMIS, the case management software that became the center of the PROMIS Software Scandal a decade later.²

Role in PROMIS Development

In 1969, Flannery commissioned a team from Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co to design a computer-based case management system for the U.S. Attorney's office, funded by a $60,000 grant (70-DF-047) from the Office of Crime Analysis of the District of Columbia administered through the LEAA. The team was co-directed by Joan E. Jacoby (Director of the Office of Crime Analysis) and Charles R. Work (Deputy Director of the Superior Court Division of the U.S. Attorney's Office), with Bill Hamilton serving as project manager.²³ The system, named the Prosecutor's Management Information System, was deployed on January 1, 1971.³

Judicial Career

President Nixon nominated Flannery to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on November 18, 1971. The Senate confirmed him on December 1, 1971, and his commission issued on December 6, 1971. He assumed senior status on May 10, 1985 and died on September 20, 2007.¹ He served as Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia from 1977 until approximately 1987, and continued as a senior judge thereafter.

Footnotes

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1. Federal Judicial Center, Biographical Directory of Article III Federal Judges, entry for Flannery, Thomas Aquinas (assistant U.S. attorney, D.C., 1950 to 1962; U.S. attorney, D.C., 1969 to 1971; nominated November 18, 1971; senior status May 10, 1985; died September 20, 2007). https://www.fjc.gov/history/judges/flannery-thomas-aquinas ↩︎

2. U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary. The INSLAW Affair: Investigative Report. House Report 102-857, 102nd Congress, 2nd Session, September 10, 1992. ↩︎

3. Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co., System Overview and Report Formats for PROMIS (May 1971), prepared for the District of Columbia Government Office of Crime Analysis under LEAA Grant No. 70-DF-047, note 1 to the passage on the design team, NCJ 32469. https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/Digitization/32469NCJRS.pdf ↩︎