25 Mary Beth Kelly – Interesting Biography Facts

25 Mary Beth Kelly – Interesting Biography Facts

(Last Updated On: April 16, 2021)

By profession, Mary Beth Kelly is a successful lawyer and the former justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, with her dynamic, eventful personal life as well as professional and social career. In this article, I am going to share some of the interesting, fun, profile, and biography facts about this prominent figure.

Mary Beth Kelly Interesting Facts

Let’s keep going below to have fun facts about Mary Beth Kelly:

1. Born

Mary Beth Kelly was born on Mary Beth Kelly Tuesday, June 19, 1962.

2. Education

Mary Beth Kelly was meritorious since childhood and received her undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan-Dearborn, and later on had her Juris Doctor degree from Notre Dame Law School, professional graduate law school under the University of Notre Dame.

3. Children

She has one child. her son is a 2020 graduate of Kalamazoo College.

4. Personal life

In personal life, Kelly is helpful and dedicated to family as well as for others.

5. First Female Chief Judge

She could stand out among others with her merit and became the first woman to serve as the Chief Judge of that court since his joining in 2002 by the Michigan Supreme Court.

6. Profession

In the profession, she was transparent, honest, versatile, and truthful. Throughout her professional career, she had worked hard with reputation and stayed strong for facts and truth. She has 20 years of professional experience.

7. 8th woman in the state Supreme Court

With her dynamic career, Kelly is the eighth woman to serve on the state Supreme Court.

8. Inception of career

Before joining state court, Kelly worked with Dickinson Wright law firm in 1987 and turned a partner at the firm later on. She did good in commercial litigation with the firm.

9. Resigns from Job

Kelly resigned from the Supreme Court in 2015 in order to lift up her passion project to support people more intensively through Bodman PLC in Detroit, as a partner and vice-chair.

“It is true, one of the reasons I was motivated to go back into the private sector was because I felt that what I had sought out to achieve, I had accomplished. I really wanted to get back into private practice doing mediation and litigation again,” Mary Beth Kelly said.

10. Elections

After being nominated by Republican Party, Kelly conceded victory in the election to the Michigan Supreme Court in 2010. She was very popular and received the most votes statewide for her goodwill, reputation, and service record.

11. A successful event coordinator

For the last 23 years, Mary Beth Kelly has dedicatedly been working with the Age Strong Commission. Here she successfully coordinates around 23 events so far. She is a great organizer and can manage everything well.

12. Running is a Passion

She has a passion for running and several past achievements as a great runner.

13. Focus on child welfare and family matters

Her focus remains always with child welfare and family matters when she works with numerous statewide committees

14. Chair at Juvenile Justice Committee 

She was appointed as the chair of the Michigan Juvenile Justice Committee in 2015 by Governor Rick Snyder. Her focus was to work with youth as well as diversion, juvenile mental health courts as well as raising the Age legislation.

15. VIsiting Judge

In the Wayne County Circuit Court, Mary Beth Kelly had worked as a Visiting Judge and successfully served to clear a backlog of cases in the Family Division of the court.

16. Three terms as Chief Judge

Mary Beth Kelly was appointed 3 terms as Chief Judge of the Wayne County Circuit Court.

17. Contribution as the Chief Judge

Since inception as the Chief Judge, Kelly was dedicated to solving the backlogs and speed up the litigation process. She endeavored to double the size of the Family Division, which was a much-needed demand over time.

Moreover, she led efforts in order to improve the racial diversity of the jury system. She also worked to revise attorney assignment procedures in compliance with ABA standards.

Mary Beth Kelly implemented the call center as well as initiated noticeable improvements to the Wayne County Friend of the Court. These are some of his contributions.

Mary Beth Kelly

18. Co-chair of the Michigan Race Coalition

Through the use of meaningful data and pieces of evidence, Mary Beth Kelly analyzed the need for juvenile justice as well as foster care in order to improve policies and racial disparities, while her involvement as the Co-chair of the Michigan Race Coalition.

19. Private practice at Bodman PLC

According to Mary Beth Kelly’s facts, she worked with Bodman PLC and successfully contributed as the vice-chair of the Litigation and Alternative Dispute Resolution practice group with dedication and commitment.

20. Mediator and arbitrator at JAMS

As a part of her dynamic career and goal to contribute, Mary Beth also serves in Detroit as a mediator and arbitrator at esteemed Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services (JAMS), which is a national ADR provider.

21. Lifetime resident of Wayne County

Because of her patriotic fervor, love for home, and surroundings, Mary Beth is a lifetime resident of Wayne County.

22. Love and passion for the profession

In her lifetime, Kelly is determined to be attached to the court intensively. Whenever she visits courts, she realizes how much passion, respect, and fervor she has for law. At any cost, she wants to uphold the dignity of law through justice.

“Appellate law and molding the state’s jurisprudence from the Supreme Court’s perspective is very, very different than running a trial court and adjudicating cases every day, where you are literally impacting the lives of families and it’s a very different experience,” Kelly said.

23. Scholar and Writer

During her studentship at Notre Dame Law School, she was honored as a Thomas J. White scholar as well as wrote splendid articles for the Journal of Law Ethics and Public Policy.

24. One of the most effective chief judges

During her time as the Chief Judge, Then-Chief Justice Clifford TAYLOR praised Kelly as “one of the most effective chief judges in the history of the Michigan Court system”

25.  Self Esteem

Kelly has strong self-confidence and self-esteem about her. She has believed in her skills and connectivity with the community. “My skill set, I think, is best in interacting with the community . . . and being able to actually bring justice to a particular matter,” Kelly says. “It’s very important to me that people leave my courtroom believing they had a good experience with the court system.”

More Interesting Articles