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 was first elected to the Supreme Court in 2002. Ohio’s voters reelected her in 2008 in a landslide victory in which she carried every one of Ohio’s 88 counties and took approximately 68% of the vote. In 2010, her election to the Chief Justice’s office, again garnering approximately 68% of the vote and all counties, marked the latest achievement in a long and distinguished career of public service. She has served as an attorney, magistrate, and common pleas court judge. She was the Summit County Prosecuting Attorney before being elected lieutenant governor. As Lt. Governor she simultaneously served as Director of the Department of Public Safety and chaired various security task forces. Since she took office in 2011, Chief Justice O’Connor has led significant reforms and improvements in the Ohio judicial system, including establishing a task force to examine court funding statewide, creating a task force to examine the administration of the death penalty, and proposing improvements to strengthen judicial elections in Ohio to name just a few.
