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DARLENE A. O’BRIEN was appointed Judge of Washtenaw County Probate Court by Governor Granholm in 2006, and was elected probate judgelater that year.  Previously she had been a principal in the Ann Arbor law firm of O’Brien & O’Brien PLC since 1984.  Judge O’Brien has served on COPE’s board continuously since 1994, including terms as secretary, vice-president and president.

C.O.P.E. Quote: When my father-in-law the Hon. Francis L. O’Brien conceived of COPE over 30 years ago, he knew that some of our county’s youth needed individualized attention and a different approach to their education. That need continues and has grown. I am proud of COPE’s dedicated staff who, together with all who have supported COPE throughout the years, have made countless success stories possible for our students. The benefits of COPE’s efforts will endure for generations to come.

Contact Information:
Hon. Darlene A. O’Brien
101 E. Huron St.
PO Box 8645
Ann Arbor,  MI  48107-8645
(734) 222-3006
(734) 222-3019 fx
obriend@ewashtenaw.org

Biography:
Darlene A. O’Brien graduated summa cum laude from the University of Toledo Honors Program in 1977. She clerked in a legal aid office, for a state court trial judge, at the Illinois Office of the Appellate Defender and in a private practice in Washington D.C. while earning her juris doctorate from Notre Dame Law School in 1980. Upon graduation, Ms. O’Brien passed the Indiana bar and served as judicial law clerk to the federal bankruptcy court in South Bend, Indiana. She was admitted to practice law in Michigan in 1981. Following private practice with Smith & Brooker, an insurance defense firm with offices in Saginaw, Bay City, and Flint, she formed the trial law firm of O’Brien & O’Brien with her husband, Thomas C. O’Brien. The O’Briens reside in Ann Arbor and have two grown children.
Ms. O’Brien is a member of the American Bar Assoc., Michigan Bar Assoc., Washtenaw County Bar Assoc., Women Lawyers Association of Michigan and the National Institute of Trial Advocacy Advocates Association. She has frequently served as commentator for the Institute of Continuing Education throughout the 1990s and as a panelist for the 1995 and 1996 Deposition Skills Workshops. She authored a chapter on pleading which appears in the Institute’s Michigan Causes of Action Formbook. Ms. O’Brien completed the Institute’s Civil Case Mediator Training, 2003, as well as the Washtenaw County Probate Court Training, 2004. In private practice she focused on serious plaintiff’s personal injury cases, criminal defense and youthful offenders.  In 2007, Judge O’Brien was awarded the Fr. Bernard J. O’Connor Award by the Dispute Resolution Center for her “just and humane resolution of human conflict.”