Judith L. Hunter is an example of how women’s careers take unexpected turns. Hunter started out as a teacher in the Hudson elementary schools. She is now the judge of the Summit County Court of Common Pleas, Juvenile Division.
Hunter attended high school in Richland County, Ohio. She got her degree from Shelby High School in 1959 and then went off to college, first to Baldwin Wallace and then Ohio State. After graduation, she taught in Hudson, Ohio; but in 1967, she left that job to care for her newborn son. By the 1970s she was back in school – this time to The University of Akron’s School of Law. She graduated in 1978 in the top 10 percent of her class.
Hunter started a new career as an attorney specializing in family law. She joined the law firm of Matz, Pertsilage and Weimer and served on the Family Law Committee of the Akron Bar Association. She also developed a strong interest in the legal problems facing battered and abused wives and children; Hunter volunteered as legal counsel for the Battered Women’s Shelter in Akron.
Her career then took another turn – politics. A Republican, Hunter ran for the Akron Municipal Court unsuccessfully; her run for the Domestic Relations Court met a similar fate. Finally in 1991 she won the election for clerk of courts. Five years later she was running for the Summit County Court of Common Pleas, Juvenile Division, and won. She was re-elected in 2002.
Since arriving on the bench, Hunter has brought a variety of innovations to the juvenile court. She implemented procedures needed to comply with seven new juvenile justice laws. She has also started a juvenile drug treatment court, an important innovation because research showed that a full two-thirds of the children involved in the Summit County court system needed some type of substance abuse treatment. She also serves on the county’s Criminal Justice Advisory Board.
Over her career, Hunter has won a variety of awards; she was named woman of the year by the Women’s History Project of the Akron area and received The University of Akron’s Urban Light Award. She currently serves on Summit County’s Criminal Justice Advisory Board.
Photo courtesy of the Beacon Journal.
—Zachary Jackson