Hon. Megan Maher Brennan (Ret.)

Twelve years on Michigan's largest trial court and the only judge on the Wayne County bench to have served in all four of its divisions, following a career in commercial and employment litigation.

Judge Brennan joined MI-JADR in June 2018 after 31 years of trial experience as a litigator and jurist. She focuses her practice on mediating civil cases from the Livonia office and remotely.

Appointed to the Third Judicial Circuit (Wayne County Circuit Court) by Governor Granholm in 2005 and elected in 2006, 2008 and 2014, she became the only judge on that 58-member bench to serve in all four divisions: Civil, Criminal, Family and Juvenile. She sat on the Court's Executive, Docket Review and Security Committees, co-chaired the Family Court Mediation program, and spearheaded Wayne County's first Legal Self-Help Center.

Before the bench, Judge Brennan clerked for Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Dorothy Comstock Riley, practiced commercial litigation and appellate work at Bodman Longley & Dahling with an emphasis on labor and employment law, ran her own civil litigation practice for nearly a decade, and served as an Assistant Attorney General representing the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Growth.

She has served on the Michigan Judicial Institute's Academic Advisory Committee and presents regularly for the State Bar of Michigan, ICLE and Wayne State University Law School.

Credentials

• Judge, 3rd Judicial Circuit of Michigan (2005–2018)
• Served in all four divisions: Civil, Criminal, Family, Juvenile
• Executive, Docket Review and Security Committees
• Former Assistant Attorney General, State of Michigan
• Law clerk to Chief Justice Dorothy Comstock Riley

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Education

• JD, Wayne State University Law School (Wayne Law Review editor)
• BA cum laude, Political Science–Pre Law, Michigan State University