Served from 1999 through 2011
Chief Justice: 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004
Maura D. Corrigan was born in 1948 in Cleveland, Ohio. She received her B.A. from Marygrove College in 1969, graduating magna cum laude, and her J.D. from the University of Detroit in 1973, graduating cum laude.
Corrigan’s legal career began when she served as a law clerk to the Honorable John Gillis of the Michigan Court of Appeals. She then moved on to become an assistant prosecuting attorney in Wayne County from 1974 to 1979; in 1979 she was appointed Chief of Appeals in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan. In 1986, she was promoted to Chief Assistant U.S. Attorney, becoming the first woman to hold that position. In 1989, Corrigan became a partner in the law firm of Plunkett Cooney, specializing in litigation and appeals.
Corrigan’s judicial service began when Governor John Engler appointed her to the Michigan Court of Appeals in March of 1992. In 1992 and 1994 she was elected to terms on that court. In 1997 she was appointed Chief Judge of the appeals court, a position she held for two years before her election to the Michigan Supreme Court in 1998. In 2001 and 2003, her peers on the Michigan Supreme Court elected Corrigan Chief Justice.
Corrigan has participated in numerous community and professional activities. She is a past president of the Incorporated Society of Irish American Lawyers and the Detroit Chapter of the Federal Bar Association. She served as a public member of the Michigan Law Revision Commission from 1991-1998, as an executive board member of the Michigan Judges Association, and as a member of the Judicial Advisory Board of the Center for Law and Organizational Economics at the University of Kansas Law School. She also served on the Board of Directors of Boysville of Michigan.
Corrigan won many awards for her professional achievements, including the U.S. Department of Justice Director’s Award for Outstanding Performance as an Assistant U.S. Attorney and the Federal Bar Association’s Leonard Gilman Award to the 1989 Outstanding Practitioner of Criminal Law. She also published in journals such as the Wayne Law Review and University of Toledo Law Review and taught as an adjunct professor at Wayne State University Law School.
Corrigan is the widow of Wayne State University Distinguished Professor of Law Joseph D. Grano and is the mother of Megan and Daniel.