Mary Mullarkey

Mary Mullarkey is a former chief justice of the Colorado Supreme Court and the first female Supreme Court chief justice in the state of Colorado.

Mullarkey was born on September 28, 1943 to John and Isabelle Mullarkey in New London, Wisconsin. She would attend St. Norbert College and Harvard Law School. On July 24, 1971 she married Thomas E. Korson.

Mullarkey began her career in Washington, D.C. with the Office of the Solicitor, U.S. Department of the Interior. Here, she represented federal agencies in water, environmental, and civil rights cases.

Due to her expertise in race and gender discrimination cases under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act earned her a position at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Office in Denver, CO in 1973. She began to oversee appeals in the office of Attorney General J.D. MacFarlane then transitioned to solicitor general, a position in which she was lead counsel for the state in major appellate cases from 1975 to 1982. From 1982 to 1985, Mullarkey served as the chief advisor to Governor Dick Lamm.

Governor Roy Romer appointed Mullarkey to the Colorado Supreme Court in 1987. In 1998, Mullarkey was the appointed to the Colorado Supreme Court as the first female chief justice in the state's history. She served as Chief Justice for 12 years, the longest term of any Colorado justice, until her retirement, effective November 30, 2010.

During her 23-year tenure on the Colorado Supreme Court, Mullarkey heard more than 300,000 cases and authored 472 opinions. She helped to increase Colorado's number of judges by 27 percent, remodel courthouses, institute judicial training and juror appreciation programs, and turn Colorado's judicial system into a national technological model.

Mullarkey instituted a rule that all court buildings must have child waiting rooms providing children with a safe place to stay during parents' court appearances. Prior to retiring, Mullarkey worked to bring to fruition the state-of-the-art Ralph L. Carr Colorado Judicial Center in Denver.