April 11, 2012
Chief Justice to Receive Top Honor from Cleveland-Marshall
The Cleveland-Marshall College of Law has announced that Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor will be named 2012 Alumni of the Year at an awards luncheon on May 24. It is one of the largest annual gatherings of lawyers in the state.
“'Cleveland Marshall College of Law has educated some of Ohio’s best lawyers and judges, and I am humbled to receive this recognition from my alma mater,” Chief Justice O’Connor said. The chief justice received her law degree from Cleveland Marshall in 1980.
Each year the Cleveland Marshall Law Alumni Association honors two distinguished alumni who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement, leadership and service to the community.
This year’s awards will be given on Thursday, May 24, at the Renaissance Cleveland Hotel. James A. Lowe of Lowe Eklund Wakefield & Mulvihill, who graduated from the school in 1972, also will be honored.
Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor is the 10th Chief Justice in Ohio history and is the first woman to lead the Ohio judicial branch. She first joined the Ohio Supreme Court as an associate justice in January 2003. She was re-elected in November 2008 and then as chief justice in 2010.
Born in the nation's capital, but raised in Strongsville and Parma, Chief Justice O'Connor's career in public service and the law spans three decades and includes service as a private lawyer, magistrate, common pleas court judge, prosecutor, and Supreme Court justice.
She earned her bachelor of arts at Seton Hill College in 1973 before going on to earn her law degree from Cleveland-Marshall.