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Corrigall Jones takes the bench in Summit County
ASHLEY C. HEENEY
Legal News Reporter
Published: January 20, 2012
Attorney Amy Corrigall Jones takes the bench today as Summit County Common Pleas Judge Corrigall Jones, in the seat vacated by Judge Patricia Cosgrove last fall.
Governor John Kasich appointed Republican Corrigall Jones to the bench last week and she will face Brouse McDowell Attorney John Fickes and Scanlon Group Co., LPA Attorney Patrick Hart, both Democrats, in the March 6 primary election. The seat will be up for a full six-year term in this year’s general election.
“It’ll be the battle of the Irish,” said Corrigall Jones. All three candidates are graduates of St. Vincent-St. Mary High School, the new judge being the most recent–from the class of 1993.
Cosgrove is an alumna of St. Mary, before that school merged with St. V.
“It’s a credit to St. Vincent St. Mary,” said Corrigall Jones, the Summit County GOP’s pick for the race. “It’s fantastic, a tribute to that school, to be able to have three candidates from the same school. That’s impressive. All of us are involved there.
The newly appointed judge hails from the Law Offices of Corrigall & Jones, based in Akron and Ravenna where her husband, Erik Jones and Dave Ferguson, Deidre Hanlon and Lynne Earhart practice.
Becoming a judge was something Corrigall Jones said she considered since about the fourth or fifth grade. The daughter of famed Kent State University retired famed player and coach Jim Corrigall said while athletics have always been a tremendous part of her life, political science and politics was her goal.
“So obviously this is a tremendous opportunity,” said the KSU (1997) and The University of Akron School of Law (2001) graduate.
“During law school I was on the mock trial team and we had tremendous coaches. They would bring in people from different firms so the exposure that way was fantastic,” she said. “At that point to reach the higher goal I was interested in being able to litigate and try cases. The trill of that really interested me.”
Her first opportunity out of law school was primarily doing civil defense from the firm Davis and Young in Akron.
“Right away they said to me, listen we know you’re young, but you have to handle your own case load and that’s what I did. And it was fantastic. You know some firms, you go in and you research for 10 years or you’re writing, sitting in an office. I was able to try cases right away and represent clients.
“Then my trial team coach Larry Sutter approached me in maybe 2003 and asked
me to work at Sutter, O'Connell, Mannion & Farchione doing catastrophic injury. I was thrilled about that, because it was completely different and I knew the magnitude of the cases.
“We handled the sexual abuse cases for the [Catholic] diocese in California, the steam engine explosion out at the Medina County Fair–I handled that case. We were in federal court, we went to St. Louis, Chicago, New York. It was incredible and high pressure. As a trial attorney it was a dream to be able to work on those cases, and to work with truly brilliant attorneys.
“As a young female attorney, too, that was something,” she said. “The diversity in the law is more now, but it is sometimes difficult as a young woman in a primary male dominated professional environment. That was a great learning lesson and experience.
“I’d always talked about and had interested in starting my own firm. So in 2006 I did that. Over the last six years, I’ve been able to represent clients on both sides, plaintiffs and defendants in criminal defense work, a lot of litigation, probate work and domestic relations.
“Sometimes over the years, you know you think to yourself ‘why I am doing this?’ Well I’m so fortunate such a diverse experience in my 11 years of practice, because so many times lawyers get specialized or pigeonholed in one area, so it’s enabled to adjust and adapt to different environments. And also understand from clients different perspectives. It’s important I think.”
Corrigall Jones said though she has no previous experience on the bench, during her last Akron Municipal Court judge campaign in 2011 (a defeat against incumbent Democrat Judge Kathryn Michael) she spent a lot of time in the courthouse to get a better understanding of the judicial perspective. She is also taking advice from Cosgrove, whose judicial attorney Kandi O’Connor will stay on for Corrigall Jones as she also campaigns on the GOP ticket for the county clerk of courts race against incumbent Democrat Dan Horrigan.
In the community, Corrigall Jones is the first female president of Dapper Dan Charities of Akron, which raises money and donate to underprivileged kids. Previously she was a member of public defender’s commission in Portage County. She currently coaches CYO girl’s basketball and last year was Hoban High School assistant basketball coach and her husband coaches football there.
This year she is coaching the mock trial team at St. V-M.
Ohio Supreme Court Chief Justice Maureen O’Connor will ceremoniously swear in the judge Feb. 10 in the atrium of the Summit County Common Pleas Court.