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Chief Judge*, Court of Appeals, July 8, 2013 to September 10, 2021. Mary Ellen Barbera, a graduate of the University of Maryland School of Law, is the first female Chief Judge of the Maryland Court of Appeals.
A former elementary school teacher, Barbera graduated from the University of Maryland School of Law in May of 1984 and served as law clerk to Hon. Robert L. Karwacki, Court of Special Appeals of Maryland, until July 1985, when she joined the Office of the Attorney General of Maryland. She served as an assistant attorney general in the Criminal Appeals Division, becoming deputy chief of that division in 1989. She joined Governor Glendening’s Office of Legal and Regulatory Affairs as deputy legal counsel in 1998 and was promoted to chief legal counsel in 1999.
Chief Judge Barbera received numerous awards and honors, including the Maryland Senate’s First Citizen Award (2018), the Montgomery County Bar Association’s Annual Jurist Award (2019), the Maryland State Bar Association’s Hon. Anselm Sodaro Judicial Civility Award (2021), and the Maryland Bar Foundation’s H. Vernon Eney Endowment Fund Award (2021).
Prior to her appointment to the Court of Appeals, she served as an at large judge on Maryland's intermediate appellate court, the Court of Special Appeals, from January 4, 2002 to September 2, 2008. On July 3, 2013, Governor Martin O'Malley appointed Judge Barbera as successor to former Chief Judge Robert M. Bell, who reached the mandatory retirement age of 70. She retired as chief judge of the Court of Appeals of Maryland in September 2021.
*In the 2022 general election held on November 8, 2022, voters approved a constitutional amendment to change the name of the court to the "Supreme Court of Maryland", and the title of its judges to "Justice."