Biography of Justices

Biographies of the Justices

2011 Justices Photo
Photo by Doug Elbinger, Elbinger Studios

Front Row (Left to Right)
Justice Michael F. Cavanagh, Chief Justice Robert P. Young, Jr., Justice Marilyn Kelly

Back Row (Left to Right)
Justice Mary Beth Kelly, Justice Stephen J. Markman,
Justice Diane Marie Hathaway, Justice Brian K. Zahra

Links to Biographies:

Current Justices:	Chief Justice Robert P. Young, Jr. Justice Michael F. Cavanagh Justice Marilyn Kelly Justice Stephen J. Markman Justice Diane Marie Hathaway Justice Mary Beth Kelly Justice Brian K. Zahra
Former Justices:	Historical Society

Chief Justice Robert P. Young, Jr. has been a member of the Michigan Supreme Court since 1999. He was elected to the Court in 2002 and re-elected in 2010 to a term that will expire on January 1, 2019.

Chief 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. Beginning in 1992, Chief Justice Young served as vice president, corporate secretary, and general counsel of AAA Michigan. In 1995, he was appointed a judge of the Michigan Court of Appeals; he was elected to that court in 1996.

Chief Justice Young, who has served as an adjunct professor at Wayne State University Law School for a number of years, is the author of “Active Liberty and the Problem of Judicial Oligarchy,” in The Supreme Court and the Idea of Constitutionalism (Kautz, Melzer, Weinberger & Zinman, Eds., University of Pennsylvania Press 2009). He 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). He holds honorary degrees from Michigan State University and Central Michigan University.

Chief Justice Young has served on the boards of many charitable business and civic organizations, including United Community Services of Metropolitan Detroit and Vista Maria, a resource center for disadvantaged young women and girls. He has also served as a trustee of the Detroit Institute of Children, The Detroit Historical Society, and the Governor's Task Force on Children's Justice Concerning Child Abuse and Neglect. A former commissioner of the Michigan Civil Service Commission, Chief Justice Young was a trustee of Central Michigan University, University Liggett School, and the Grosse Pointe Academy. He is a former chair of the Greater Detroit Chamber of Commerce “Leadership Detroit” program. In 1999, he was named “Alumnus of the Year” by Detroit Country Day School.

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 three grandsons and two granddaughters. The Cavanagh family resides in East Lansing .

Before taking the bench, 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. She served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 2009 to 2011.

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.

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, 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, 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. Justice Kelly is on the governing board of the National Consortium for Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Courts and has served as its president.

Justice Kelly’s community activities have 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. Wayne State University presented Justice Kelly with its Distinguished Alumni Award in 2010.

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, Justice Kelly received the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanities Award from the State of Israel Bonds Attorney Division. The State Bar of Michigan presented 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.

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, Justice Markman served as United States Attorney, or federal prosecutor, in Michigan, after having been nominated by President George H. W. Bush and confirmed by the United States Senate. From 1985-1989, he served as Assistant Attorney General of the United States, after having been nominated by President Ronald Reagan and confirmed by the United States Senate. In that position, he headed the Department of Justice’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 United States Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, and as Deputy Chief Counsel of the United States Senate Judiciary Committee.

Justice Markman has authored articles for such publications as the University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform, the Detroit College of Law Review, the Stanford Law Review, the University of Chicago Law Review, the American Criminal Justice Law Review, the Barrister's Law Journal, the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy, and the American University Law Review. He has also served as a contributing editor of National Review magazine, and has authored chapters in such books as “In the Name of Justice: The Aims of the Criminal Law,” “Still the Law of the Land,” and “Originalism: A Quarter Century of Debate.”

Justice Markman has taught constitutional law at Hillsdale College since 1993. He has traveled to Ukraine on two occasions on behalf of the State Department, 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 hundreds of youth, civic, charitable, and legal groups throughout Michigan and nationally, and has coached Little League baseball and basketball. He lives with his wife Mary Kathleen in Mason, and has two sons, James & Charles.

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. Her term expires on January 1, 2017. Before joining the Supreme Court, Justice Hathaway served as a judge on the Wayne County Circuit Court for 16 years. She was first elected to the circuit court in 1992 and then re-elected in 1998 and 2004. As a circuit judge, she presided over civil, criminal, family, and appellate matters, and she was a member of the court’s executive committee. She was also appointed as a visiting judge of the Michigan Court of Appeals to help expedite the appeals process during a period of backlog in that court. Additionally, Justice Hathaway was involved with “Kids TALK,” a child advocacy program that provides forensic interviews and mental health services to children who are victims of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse.

The daughter of a Detroit police officer, Justice Hathaway was born, raised, and educated in the city of Detroit. After graduating from high school, she attended Henry Ford Hospital School of Radiologic Technology and became an X-ray Technician. She also obtained her real estate broker’s license and worked in both radiology and real estate while raising her children and attending college. Justice Hathaway graduated with honors from Madonna University and received a bachelor of science in Allied Health. She earned her law degree from the Detroit College of Law (now Michigan State University College of Law) in 1987. While in law school, she worked as a research clerk at the Wayne County Circuit Court and Detroit Recorder’s Court. She also taught real estate law and continuing education classes to real estate brokers.

After private practice in probate and real estate law, Justice Hathaway served as a Macomb County assistant prosecuting attorney. Initially, she prosecuted cases in the trial division, but was soon promoted to Chief of the Drug Forfeiture Division. In addition to prosecuting cases, she volunteered her time to visit high schools and police stations to educate students and law enforcement officers about forfeiture laws. She has been active in numerous professional organizations. Such organizations 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.

Michigan State University College of Law awarded Justice Hathaway with the Distinguished Almuni Award in recognition of her significant service to the college, the profession, and the community. She was also honored by the B’Nai B’Rith Barristers Bar Association for promoting the administration of justice regarding persons of minority ethnic backgrounds in the legal profession. Justice Hathaway was the Supreme Court liaison to the Michigan Bar Association and the Board of Law Examiners. Presently, she is the Supreme Court liaison to the Attorney Discipline Board and the Attorney Grievance Commission.

Justice Hathaway resides in the Detroit area with her husband, attorney Michael Kingsley. She has five children and three grandchildren.

Justice Mary Beth Kelly was elected to the Michigan Supreme Court in November 2010 and will serve a term that ends December 31, 2018. She served on the Wayne County Circuit Court for 11 years, having been appointed by Governor John Engler in 1999; she was elected to the court in 2000 and re-elected in 2002 and 2008.

In 2002, the Michigan Supreme Court appointed her the chief judge of the Wayne Circuit Court, making her the first woman to lead that bench. She served as chief judge through 2007, focusing on budget deficit reduction, timely dockets, jail overcrowding, and the court’s Family Division. Under her leadership, the Family Division doubled in size to devote more judicial resources to cases concerning children and families. She also led efforts to improve the racial diversity of the Wayne County jury system, working with the National Center for State Courts to gather data and recommend county-wide solutions. Her leadership on this issue has been recognized by The Detroit News. She has been praised as “one of the most effective chief judges in the history of the Michigan Court system” by then-Chief Justice Clifford Taylor.

Justice Kelly has received numerous honors for her judicial leadership, including the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Council’s Distinguished Leadership Award. For her work on children’s issues, she was named Vista Maria’s Child Advocate of the Year and was also recognized by the Ennis Center for Children as Advocate of the Year. Justice Kelly serves as an advisor to Vista Maria and to the University of Michigan’s Detroit Center for Family Advocacy. She is an adjunct law professor at the University of Detroit- Mercy Law School.

Before becoming a judge, Justice Kelly was a successful commercial litigation partner with the law firm Dickinson Wright, which she joined in 1987. She earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan at Dearborn and her law degree from the University of Notre Dame Law School.

Justice Kelly is an active member of Sacred Heart-Grosse Ile parish where she has taught Catechism; she has also chaired the parish’s Youth Commission and served on the pastoral council. Justice Kelly resides in Grosse Ile with her husband Kevin and their 12-year-old son Jackson. In addition to her professional and community achievements, Justice Kelly is an avid runner and continues to run competitively.

Justice Brian K. Zahra was appointed to the Michigan Supreme Court on January 14, 2011, by Governor Rick Snyder.

Justice Zahra received his undergraduate degree in 1984 from Wayne State University; to finance his education, he opened and operated a small health and personal care retail store in downtown Detroit, later opening a grocery outlet, also in Detroit, with two partners. In 1987, he graduated with honors from the University of Detroit Law School, where he was a member of the Law Review; while in law school, he also served as Articles Editor of the State Bar of Michigan’s Corporation and Finance Business Law Journal. He then served as law clerk to Judge Lawrence P. Zatkoff of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan for two years before joining the law firm of Dickinson, Wright, Moon, Van Dusen & Freeman in 1989. In 1994, Governor John Engler appointed him to the Wayne County Circuit Court; he was elected to a six-year term in 1996 and continued to serve on the circuit court until December 1998, when he was appointed to the Michigan Court of Appeals by Governor Engler. He was elected to six-year terms in 2000 and 2006. From December 2005 to January 2007, he served as the Court of Appeals’ Chief Judge Pro Tem.

Justice Zahra, who has taught evidence as an adjunct professor at the University of Detroit-Mercy Law School, has served on many professional and legislative committees, including the Michigan Civil Jury Instructions Committee, the Circuit Court Appellate Rules Committee, the Domestic Violence Legislation Implementation Task Force, and the advisory committee for the Michigan Judicial Institute Domestic Violence Benchbook. He has also served on the Michigan Board of Law Examiners, which drafts and grades the examination that law school graduates must pass in order to become licensed attorneys.

Justice Zahra has been active in many civic and charitable organizations, including Boys and Girls Clubs of Southeastern Michigan, Kiwanis Club International, Leadership Detroit, the Knights of Columbus, the Maltese American Community Club, and the Maltese American Benevolent Society, of which he is a past officer. He is a board member and former officer of the Catholic Lawyers Society, and is a member of the Federalist Society, having served as secretary and vice-president of the Michigan chapter.

Justice Zahra resides in Northville Township with his wife Suzanne and their two children.