Biography of Justices

Biographies of the Justices
MSC Bench

Back Row:	Justice Stephen J. Markman, Justice Maura D. Corrigan,
	Justice Robert P. Young, Jr., and Justice Diane M. Hathaway
Front Row:	Justice Michael F. Cavanagh, Chief Justice Marilyn Kelly, and Justice Elizabeth A. Weaver

Links to Biographies:

Current Justices:	Chief Justice Marilyn Kelly Justice Michael F. Cavanagh Justice Elizabeth A. Weaver Justice Maura D. Corrigan Justice Robert P. Young, Jr. Justice Stephen J. Markman Justice Diane Marie Hathaway
Former Justices:	Historical Society

Before taking the bench, Chief Justice Marilyn Kelly was a courtroom attorney for 17 years in Michigan. Her practice was diverse in subject matter and geographic area. In 1988, she was elected to the Michigan Court of Appeals for a six-year term and re-elected in 1994. She was elected to the Michigan Supreme Court for an eight-year term in 1996, and re-elected in 2004 for an eight-year term which expires January 1, 2013.

Chief Justice Kelly was raised in Detroit and graduated from Mackenzie High School . She earned a B.A. degree from Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti . After a year's graduate study at LaSorbonne, University of Paris, France, she received her master's degree from Middlebury College in Vermont. She taught French language and literature in the Grosse Pointe Public Schools, at Albion College and Eastern Michigan University before attending law school at Wayne State University. She earned a law degree with honors and serves the law school now on its Board of Visitors.

Chief Justice Kelly is a member of the Oakland County Bar Association, where she has been active as Chair of the Family Law Committee and Committee Co-Chair of the President's Task Force on Improved Dispute Resolution. She has been an arbitrator with the American Arbitration Association and a panel member of the State Attorney Discipline Board. She is editor of the 6th Edition of Michigan Family Law published by ICLE. In 2003, Chief Justice Kelly became a Fellow of the Michigan State Bar Foundation.

She was elected statewide to the Michigan State Board of Education in 1964 and again in 1968, and served 12 years on the Board, the last two as its President. She has been President, in addition, of the Women's Bar Association and of the Women Lawyers' Association of Michigan. She has been a member of the State Bar Representative Assembly and the Family Law Council for the State Bar of Michigan. From 1999 through 2003, Chief Justice Kelly was Co-Chair of the Open Justice Commission, an organization of the State Bar devoted to making justice available to all, regardless of factors like race, color, creed or disability. Chief Justice Kelly is on the governing board of the National Consortium for Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Courts.

Justice Kelly’s community activities has included serving as a board member of Channel 56-Public Television in Detroit, a board member of the Women's Survival Center in Pontiac, Vice President of the Board of the Detroit Institute of Technology, Development Committee member of St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Pontiac, and member of the citizens advisory committee of the Detroit Public Schools, Wayne County Community College and Oakland County Community College.

Chief Justice Kelly has been awarded honorary doctor of law degrees by Eastern Michigan University, Michigan State University College of Law, and Wayne State University Law School. She was named one of Michigan's 95 most powerful women by Corp! magazine and is the recipient of the Michigan Education Association’s Distinguished Service Award. In June 2003, Chief Justice Kelly received the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanities Award from the State of Israel Bonds Attorney Division. The State Bar of Michigan presented Chief Justice Kelly with its Michael Franck Award for her outstanding contribution to the legal profession at its annual meeting in September 2003. In 2005, she was honored by Wayne State University as one of the university's outstanding alumni. In 2009, she received the Guardian of Justice Award from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in recognition of her outstanding commitment and dedication to upholding civil rights.

Justice Cavanagh received a bachelor's degree from the University of Detroit in 1962 and his law degree from the University of Detroit Law School in 1966. He began his career as a law clerk for the Michigan Court of Appeals. In 1967, Justice Cavanagh was hired as an assistant city attorney for the City of Lansing and thereafter was appointed as Lansing City Attorney, serving until 1969. He then became a partner in the Lansing law firm of Farhat, Burns and Story, P.C. In 1972, he was elected judge of the 54-A District Court and served from 1973-1975. Justice Cavanagh was then elected to the Michigan Court of Appeals, where he served from 1975-1982. At that time, he was the youngest person ever elected to the Michigan Court of Appeals. Justice Cavanagh was elected to the state Supreme Court in 1982 and was re-elected in 1990, 1998, and 2006. He served as Chief Justice from 1991-95. Justice Cavanagh's current term expires January 1, 2015.

The son of a factory worker and a teacher who moved to Detroit from Canada, Justice Cavanagh worked on Great Lakes freighters during the summers to help pay his tuition at the University of Detroit. During his years in law school, he was employed as an insurance claims adjuster and also worked for the Wayne County Friend of the Court as an investigator.

Justice Cavanagh has participated in numerous community and professional activities, including Chairman of the Board of the American Heart Association, Past President of the Incorporated Society of Irish/American Lawyers, Board of Directors of the Thomas M. Cooley Law School, and the Commission on the Future of the University of Detroit Mercy . He is a Member of the Institute of Judicial Administration, New York University Law School. He has served as Vice President of the Conference of Chief Justices, Chair of the National Interbranch Conference of Funding the State Courts, and member of the National Center for State Courts Court Improvement Program. Other appointments include the Michigan Justice Project, Chairman of the Judicial Planning Committee, Michigan Crime Commission, Judicial Coordinating Committee, and Chair of the Sentencing Guidelines Committee. Justice Cavanagh is the Supervising Justice of the Michigan Judicial Institute. Justice Cavanagh was instrumental in the planning, design, construction and eventual completion of the Michigan Hall of Justice. He has served as Supreme Court Liaison, Michigan Indian Tribal Courts/Michigan State Courts since 1990, and has attended many national Indian Law conferences and participated in Federal Bar Association Tribal Court symposiums.

Justice Cavanagh and his wife, Patricia, are the parents of three children, and have two grandsons and two granddaughters. The Cavanagh family resides in East Lansing .

Justice Weaver, of Glen Arbor, attended undergraduate school at H. Sophie Newcomb College, receiving her bachelor's degree, Phi Beta Kappa, in 1962. She earned her law degree from Tulane University in 1965, served as an editor of the Tulane Law Review, received the Order of the Coif, and served as a law clerk for a Louisiana District Judge. Justice Weaver began her law practice in Louisiana, then in Michigan. Elected Leelanau County probate/juvenile judge in November 1974, she was re-elected to six-year terms in 1976 and 1982, serving through January 1, 1987. In 1986, Justice Weaver was elected to the Michigan Court of Appeals, 3rd District, for a six-year term, and was re-elected in 1992. She was elected to the Michigan Supreme Court in 1994 and served as Chief Justice from 1999-2000. She was re-elected in 2002. Justice Weaver's term expires January 1, 2011.

Justice Weaver was appointed to the Michigan Commission on Criminal Justice by Governor William Milliken; to the Michigan Committee on Juvenile Justice by Governors James Blanchard, John Engler, and Jennifer Granholm. She was also appointed to chair the Governor's Task Force for Children's Justice and the Trial Court Assessment Commission by Governors Engler and Granholm. She has served as chair of the State Bar of Michigan Juvenile Law Committee and as president of the Top of Michigan Probate and Juvenile Judges Association. In addition, Justice Weaver has served as secretary of the Probate and Juvenile Judges Association of Michigan. Justice Weaver's honors and awards include being selected as one of five "Outstanding Young Women in Michigan" by the Michigan Jaycees and as one of "Thirty Outstanding Women in Michigan" by the Michigan Womens' Commission. In 1999, she was named "Jurist of the Year" by the Police Officers Association of Michigan. In 2000, she received the "Michigan Champions in Childhood Injury Prevention: Lifetime Dedication to Children Award"; also in 2000, Justice Weaver was honored by Governor Engler and the Family Independence Agency for outstanding service to the children and families of Michigan. The Michigan Association of Drug Court Professionals honored her in February 2002 for her exceptional service to and support of Michigan's drug courts. In 2003, she was recognized as an "Outstanding Woman in Leadership and Learning" by Ferris State University. In 2005, Justice Weaver was inducted into the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame and was recognized by Newcomb College as the Alumna of the Year. In 2006, she received the Mid-Michigan Women Lawyers Association of Michigan "Judge of the Year" award for her dedicated service to Michigan’s judicial system. Justice Weaver has also been featured in People magazine and on ABC's "Good Morning America" on juvenile justice issues.

Justice Maura Corrigan has served on the Michigan Supreme Court since 1999, including four years from 2001 – 2005, as Chief Justice.

She graduated from Marygrove College and the University of Detroit-Mercy School of Law. She then became a law clerk to Michigan Court of Appeals Judge John Gillis, a Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor, and an Assistant United States Attorney in Detroit. She was first appointed the Chief of Appeals and later, Chief Assistant United States Attorney, the first woman to hold that position. Justice Corrigan became a partner at the Detroit law firm of Plunkett & Cooney in 1989. From 1992 to 1998, she served on the Michigan Court of Appeals, the last two years as Chief Judge.

Justice Corrigan participates in numerous community and professional activities. She was chosen as commissioner of the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care and a vice-president of the Conference of Chief Justices. She was appointed to the Michigan Law Revision Commission, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit Attorney Advisory Committee, and the Rules Committee of the U.S. District Court in Detroit. She served on the Executive Board of the Michigan Judges Association and the Advisory Board of the Center for Law and Organizational Economics at the University of Kansas. She also volunteered on the board of Boysville of Michigan (now Holy Cross). She currently is a director of Vista Maria in Dearborn Heights, Michigan. She also is a member of the Federalist Society. She has been president of the Incorporated Society of Irish American Lawyers, the Federal Bar Association in Detroit, and MSU Inns of Court.

Justice Corrigan has won numerous awards including: Michigan Children’s Award (2008); Powerful Women of Purpose Award (2008); U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for Innovative Partnerships (OCS) Award (2008); Spectrum Human Services Chairman’s Award (2006); Michigan Family Support Council Judicial Award (2006); Police Officers Association of Michigan Jurist of the Year Award (2006); Incorporated Society of Irish American Lawyers’ Tiger Thornton Award (2006); Vista Maria’s Child Advocate of the Year Award (2005), the Congressional Coalition on Adoption "Angels in Adoption" Award (2005), the Detroit News Michiganian of the Year Award (2005), the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (OCS) Award for significant improvements to Michigan's Child Support Enforcement Program (2002), the Federal Bar Association’s Leonard Gilman Award to the Outstanding Practitioner of Criminal Law (1989), and the U.S. Department of Justice Director’s Award for Outstanding Performance as an Assistant U.S. Attorney (1985).

Justice Corrigan holds honorary doctorates from six Michigan colleges and universities: Eastern Michigan, Michigan State, Northern Michigan, University of Detroit-Mercy, Wayne State, and Schoolcraft College. She has been chosen as the Outstanding Alumna of UD-Mercy Law School and Marygrove College. She has coauthored a treatise on civil procedure and has published many articles in professional journals and books, including the Ave Maria Law Review, Wayne Law Review, University of Toledo Law Review, NYU Law Review and the Texas Review of Law and Politics. She has taught as an adjunct professor at Wayne State University Law School and at programs for the Michigan Judicial Institute, the American Bar Association, the Federal Bar Association, and the Attorney General’s Advocacy Institute.

Justice Corrigan is the widow of Wayne State University Distinguished Professor of Law Joseph D. Grano and is the mother of Daniel, an attorney with Flood, Lanctot in Royal Oak and member of Grosse Pointe Park City Council, and his wife, Marianne, a Presbyterian minister; Megan, an alumna of Chicago's Second City, who is an actress, comedian, and writer in Los Angeles, and her husband, Michael Canale, who works in the business end of the entertainment industry.

Justice Robert P. Young, Jr. has been a member of the Michigan Supreme Court since 1999; he was elected in 2002 to a term that will expire January 1, 2011. Before joining the Supreme Court, Justice Young served as a judge of the Michigan Court of Appeals, to which he was appointed in 1995 and elected in 1996.

Justice Young graduated in 1974 from Harvard College with honors and from Harvard Law School in 1977. In 1978, he joined the law firm of Dickinson, Wright, Moon, Van Dusen & Freeman, becoming a partner in the firm in 1982. From 1992, until he joined the Court of Appeals, Justice Young was the vice president, corporate secretary, and general counsel of AAA Michigan.

Justice Young's community activities include service as a member of the Advisory Board of the United Community Services of Metropolitan Detroit and Vista Maria. He has also served as a trustee of charitable and civic organizations devoted to children's interests, such as the Detroit Institute of Children, The Detroit Historical Society, and the Governor's Task Force on Children's Justice Concerning Child Abuse and Neglect. Justice Young is also a former commissioner of the Michigan Civil Service Commission, a former trustee of Central Michigan University, University Liggett School, Grosse Pointe Academy and a former chair of the Greater Detroit Chamber of Commerce Leadership Detroit program. He has served on the boards of many other civic and business organizations.

Justice Young has been an adjunct professor at Wayne State University Law School for a number of years and is a co-editor of Michigan Civil Procedure During Trial, 2d Ed. (Michigan Institute of Continuing Legal Education, 1989) and Michigan Civil Procedure, (Michigan Institute of Continuing Legal Education, 1999)

In 2001 and 1999, Justice Young was awarded honorary degrees respectively from Michigan State University and Central Michigan University. In 1999, Justice Young was named Detroit Country Day School 's Alumnus of the Year.

Stephen Markman was appointed Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court on October 1, 1999. Before his appointment, he served as Judge on the Michigan Court of Appeals from 1995-1999. Prior to this, he practiced law with the firm of Miller, Canfield, Paddock & Stone in Detroit. From 1989-93, he served as United States Attorney in Michigan after being nominated to that position by President George Bush and confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Justice Markman served from 1985-1989 as Assistant Attorney General of the United States after being nominated by President Ronald Reagan and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. In that position, he headed the Justice Department's Office of Legal Policy which served as the principal policy development office within the Department and which coordinated the federal judicial selection process. Prior to this, he served for seven years as Chief Counsel of the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution and as Deputy Chief Counsel of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee.

Justice Markman has authored articles for such publications as the Stanford Law Review, the University of Chicago Law Review, the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform, the American Criminal Justice Law Review, the Barrister's Law Journal, the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, the American University Law Review, the Suffolk University Law Review, the Washington & Lee Law Review and the Detroit College of Law Review. He has also served as contributing editor of National Review magazine.

Justice Markman has taught constitutional law at Hillsdale College since 1993. He has travelled to Ukraine on two occasions on behalf of the State Department and the American Bar Association, to provide assistance in the development of that nation's post-Soviet constitution. He is a Fellow of the Michigan Bar Foundation, a Master of the Bench of the Inns of Court, and a member of the One Hundred Club. He has spoken before numerous youth and civil organizations throughout Michigan, and has coached Little League baseball and basketball. He lives with his wife Mary Kathleen and their sons James and Charles in Mason.

Justice Markman was re-elected to the Supreme Court in 2000 and 2004. His present term expires January 1, 2013.

Justice Diane Marie Hathaway was elected to the Michigan Supreme Court in 2008 to a term that will expire on January 1, 2017. Before joining the Supreme Court, Justice Hathaway served as a judge of the Wayne County Circuit Court for 16 years; she was first elected to the circuit court in 1992 and re-elected in 1998 and 2004. As a circuit judge, she presided over civil, criminal, family, and appellate matters. She also served as a visiting judge of the Michigan Court of Appeals.

The daughter of a Detroit police officer, Justice Hathaway was born, raised, and educated in the city of Detroit.Upon graduating from high school, she earned a degree in Radiological Technology from Henry Ford Hospital; she also attained a real estate broker’s license. She worked both in real estate and x-ray technology while her husband attended and completed law school. While continuing to work and raise her family, Justice Hathaway then continued her education at Wayne State University and at Madonna College, where she graduated with honors with a B.S. in Allied Health. She earned her law degree from the Detroit College of Law, graduating in 1987. While in law school, she served as a research clerk for the Wayne County Circuit Court and Detroit Recorder’s Court, and also as an instructor in real estate law.

Justice Hathaway’s legal experience includes serving as an assistant prosecutor in Macomb County, where she was promoted to head that office’s Drug Forfeiture Division. She has been active in numerous professional organizations; past and present associations include the State Bar of Michigan, Detroit Metropolitan Bar Association, Macomb County Bar Association, Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan, Women Lawyers Association, Incorporated Society of Irish-American Lawyers and the Michigan Judges Association.