Judge Mary Jane Trapp
Judge Mary Jane Trapp is an 11th District Court of Appeals Judge and candidate for Ohio Supreme Court.
Judge Mary Jane Trapp has 25 years in trial and appellate practice and is a leader at the state and national level on issues of administration of justice and legal reform. Judge Trapp served for six years on the Ohio Supreme Court Rules Advisory Committee and its appellate rules subcommittee and now serves as the designee of the Ohio Courts of Appeals Judges Association on the Supreme Court of Ohio Commission on the Rules of Practice and Procedure.
Judge Trapp is the past President of the Ohio State Bar Association (OSBA), and served as the OSBA delegate to the American Bar Association House of Delegates. She now serves in that deliberative body as the delegate from the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association. She is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and a Life Fellow of the Ohio State Bar Foundation. She is a Life Member, Judicial Conference of the Eighth Judicial District and received the 2009 Founders’ Award from the Ohio Women’s Bar Association.
Judge Mary Jane Trapp has a proven track record of serving families and has focused on protecting children and families throughout her career. She offers to the people of Ohio a different background and perspective, forged in the crucible of twenty-five years representing working families, children at risk, and small business owners. Before taking the bench, Judge Trapp’s law practice took her to the trenches of both state and federal courts and to all levels of the justice system --- from small claims court to the Ohio Supreme Court.
Judge Trapp graduated from Mount Holyoke College, cum laude in May, 1978 and received her law degree from Case Western Reserve University in 1981. She was admitted to the Ohio Bar in1981 and was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court in 1987.
Mary Jane Trapp was elected to the Ohio Court of Appeals, Eleventh Appellate District, in November, 2006, and has served as its Presiding/Administrative Judge since January 2009, after serving as its Administrative Judge in 2008. Judge Trapp has served as a visiting judge on the Supreme Court of Ohio and in the Seventh and Eighth Appellate Districts.
Judge Trapp is committed to improving the administration of justice and legal reform in order to assure access to an independent judicial system in which the public has faith and confidence. She is committed to upholding the rule of law through the impartial and independent application of substantive and procedural law to the particular facts of each case in a timely manner. Judge Trapp is committed to promoting public outreach to foster greater confidence in the judicial system by greater public understanding of the law and the role of judges.
