Barbara Madsen

Barbara Madsen (born 1952) is an American judge, who is the Chief Justice of the Washington Supreme Court. She joined the court in 1992 as the first woman to be popularly elected to the Court in Washington state history. She was re-elected in 1998, 2004, and 2010, and is running for re-election in 2016. In her years on the Washington Supreme Court, Madsen has sat in judgement on thousands of cases.
Madsen is a native of Renton, Washington, and graduated from Hazen High School. In 1974, she received her undergraduate degree from the University of Washington. In 1977, she earned her J.D. from Gonzaga University School of Law.
After completing law school, Madsen worked as a public defender in King County and Snohomish County. In 1982, she joined the Seattle City Attorney’s Office and was appointed Special Prosecutor in 1984. Seattle Mayor Charles Royer appointed Madsen in 1988 to the Seattle Municipal Court bench. After serving as the Presiding Judge of the Seattle Municipal Court, she ran for the Washington Supreme Court in 1992 to fill the vacancy left by retiring Justice Fred H. Dore.
On November 5, 2009, Barbara Madsen was unanimously elected by her peers to serve as Chief Justice of the Washington Supreme Court. She was sworn in as Chief Justice on January 11, 2010, replacing retiring Chief Justice Gerry L. Alexander.