The Akron Legal News

O'Grady looking forward to serving as new 10th District Court of Appeals judge

JESSICA SHAMBAUGH
Legal News Reporter
Published: May 23, 2013

It’s going to be a busy summer for Amy O’Grady — last week she was appointed by Gov. John Kasich as a new judge for the 10th District Court of Appeals and she’s also pregnant with her second child.

O’Grady was chosen to fill a seat that has been vacant for more than four months after Judge Judith French was appointed to the Ohio Supreme Court in December.

O’Grady, who works in the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, said her reaction to the news was “pure excitement.”

“I’m thrilled to be a part of the 10th District, it’s such an honor,” she said. “It’s such a great bench and it’s something I’m very much looking forward to.”

Because O’Grady was appointed to an unexpired term, thoughts of campaigning can’t be too far away.

She will have to run in November 2014 to retain the seat for the unexpired term, which ends Dec. 31, 2016.

Still, the soon-to-be-judge said she’s trying not to focus on that just yet.

“My priority is this job and to make sure that I’m doing it and doing it well and taking each thing as it comes,” O’Grady said. “Part of campaigning is you signed up for it and you hit the ground running.”

Adding to the new challenges in her career will be a busier life at home with a new baby on the way.

The O’Grady family already has a 5-year-old daughter, Lucy, and O’Grady said she enjoys spending quality family time when she’s not at work.

Celebrating both a pregnancy and a new job has left O’Grady feeling “very, very blessed,” and reminds her of why she needs to continue to take things as they come.

“I think the reason why I’ve been successful so far in this pregnancy and in the job is you anticipate what could be in the future, but you just take one day at a time,” she said.

“So, I feel very strongly and will take the campaign very seriously, but first and foremost I need to get into this job and make sure I’m doing it and doing it well.”

Although she may be new to bench, O’Grady has seen up close what it means to be a judge.

Her husband, Jim, was elected to the Franklin County Municipal Court’s General Division in 2011, giving O’Grady a front row seat to the labors of campaigning and an intimate view of what lies ahead for her.

Also, having previously worked for the 10th District as a clerk, O’Grady knows what she’s in for and is looking forward to returning.

She is currently the section chief for the crime victim services section at the Ohio Attorney General’s Office and said she’ll be spending the next couple of weeks wrapping things up there.

The section offers assistance to victims of crime through direct advocacy, a compensation program, and education.

O’Grady also serves on the Ohio Jail Advisory Board and helps to coordinate the Ohio Attorney General’s Task Force on Criminal Justice and Mental Illness.

When the task force absorbed an advisory committee on mental illness started by former Ohio Supreme Court Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton, O’Grady was there to help coordinate the transition and keep things moving forward.

Although her current role with the task force is reserved for employees from the attorney general’s office, she said she would be open to staying involved.

“If I’m able to stay on, I’d love to, but it would be in a different capacity,” O’Grady said.

O’Grady graduated from Kent State University in 1996 and earned her juris doctorate from Capital University Law School in 2000.

O’Grady has not yet set a date to be sworn in, but she is slated to take the bench on June 3.

[Back]