A WOMAN OF OTHERS FIRST: JUDGE MARY JANE TRAPP

“I would like to be remembered as someone who fought the good fight for her clients; she dispensed justice without fear or favor; and she reached back and brought other women with her.”

- Judge Mary Jane Trapp,

leader, role model, and friend

Rare is it to meet your heroes. Rarer is it to work with them. Even rarer is it for them to live up to what you believed them to be. I had the privilege to experience all three rarities during my time of knowing Judge Mary Jane Trapp. And her heroic acts remain with me always.

I met Judge Trapp in 2019 after entering the Geauga County Bar Association Law Day Essay Contest and being honored with the First-Place award. I was a junior in high school. After the reception, I called Judge Trapp to ask if she would be willing to take me as a summer intern, of which she graciously agreed.

That summer, I learned just what an unbelievable opportunity I’d stumbled upon, something I continue to learn today. I often look back and laugh at the assignments Judge Trapp trusted me with. After all, I was still in high school and did not know a lick about the law. She saw something in me, though. And she took chances on me. Chances that changed my life.

I created a presentation on the Ohio Revised Code for medical marijuana that Judge Trapp presented to the local judges in the area. I read cases prior to hearings and gave my opinions in her chambers. And I co-authored an article titled, “A Woman of Firsts: Justice Florence Ellinwood Allen,” with Judge Trapp. The article was published in the Cleveland Metropolitan Bar Association Journal, October 2019 Edition.

Most memorably, though, I watched Judge Mary Jane Trapp on the bench, working, considering, and inspiring the next generation of female lawyers – me. The image of a row of women attorneys sitting before me, and Judge Trapp rising above me in fairness and justice,

remains fresh in my mind as the day I sat observing in the back as a 17-year-old girl.

This is what Judge Trapp wanted for her memory. She wanted people to know how she cared for others. How she brought up women. And how she did so justly. I am only one example of how her mentorship has had a lasting impact on a life.

After my internship, Judge Trapp and I kept in touch, and she always took the time to stay updated with where my career has gone since my teen years. I have always tried to do what I thought would make her proud.

Since her passing, I have seen a community she has created rise to keep her legacy alive. I learned after sharing my story of how I knew her that she really had been talking about me since I met her. People I’ve never met knew who I was because of her. Women in law came up to me and shared stories of Judge Trapp helping them become who they are too. Her friends told me they would be watching me as she did. What I lost in a mentor, I gained in a community of people who love her as I do.

She may not be here anymore to give me advice on how to navigate the legal world with justice, but she is with me all the same. In every new experience, I’ve always tried to make her proud. To show her that the chances she gave me and her unfettered belief in me were not taken for granted and not misplaced on a child. Now, I still try to make her proud, but in a new way.

My career and life are in honor of Judge Mary Jane Trapp. I am dedicating every decision to the woman who inspired me. To the woman that knew who I’d be. To the woman who put others first. Always.

May the woman who provided me with my first opportunity to discover the rest of my life rest in peace. And may she continue to uphold justice beyond this world. For those of us who were blessed to know her know that she wanted nothing more than to do just that. Justice.