Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor addresses the Women’s Executive Leadership Seminar.

Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor addresses the Women’s Executive Leadership Seminar.

Mentoring, female empowerment, and the pandemic’s effect on Ohio courts were the themes addressed during a women’s leadership seminar presented by the Supreme Court’s Judicial College.

Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor delivered opening remarks to a group of 165 court personnel, thanking them for their efforts in keeping Ohio courts open during the public health crisis.

“In these times, you are unsung heroes,” Chief Justice O’Connor told the participants.

“Since the very beginning in March, I said that the courts don’t close. We are not closing. We will reinvent. We will reconfigure. The demands on your time, your planning, and your innovation skills have gone way up,” she told them during the recent virtual gathering.

“Without you, we could not have operated our courts as well as we have been during these dangerous and unpredictable times.”

Participants asked the chief justice about her personal career path from attorney, magistrate, common pleas judge, prosecutor, lieutenant governor, Supreme Court justice, and finally to chief justice.

“I really enjoyed hearing about the chief's path to her current role,” said Lisa Falgiano, court administrator for the Toledo Municipal Court.

“As a woman, we don't always have mentors who are brave and take on a host of different roles and jobs. She has done just that,” Falgiano said.

Chief Justice O’Connor said that, as a young attorney, she never imagined becoming the head of the state judiciary.

“I had no intention of becoming a chief justice, “O’Connor said. “That was never on the radar. I was elected (as a justice) in 2002. There was an opening for chief justice in 2010. I thought I was the best candidate at that point to fill that position. So, I went for it and I fortunately was elected to that.”

“It was a great opportunity, not just because of the subject matter that we deal with on the Supreme Court, but because of the policy that we develop for the courts and for the criminal justice system,” she said.

Cuyahoga County Domestic Relations Magistrate Serpil Ergun said she appreciated Chief Justice O’Conner’s story juggling a legal career and a family.

“I thought she was inspiring in sharing her path to leadership,” Ergun said. “I was really struck that the way she started out was very unassuming – new law graduate, hanging out a shingle, taking assignments to build her practice, with a couple of babies in tow.”

“Her story is really universal. The fact that she has been so successful illustrates the hard work and perseverance it takes for a woman to really get ahead while balancing the obligations of family life at the same time,” Ergun said.