Judge Sean C.
Gallagher was elected to the Court of
Appeals of Ohio, Eighth Appellate District,
on November 5, 2002. Prior to his election
he served as a judge in the Cleveland
Municipal Court, from 1997 to 2003. Judge
Gallagher has more than thirty years of
direct experience in all areas of the Ohio
justice system.
While home on break from
Ohio University in the 1970s, Judge
Gallagher worked as a janitor cleaning
courtrooms at the Cuyahoga County Juvenile
Court. He literally worked his way up from
the "ground floor." During that period he
also worked with underprivileged children at
the Metzenbaum Children’s Center in
Cleveland and with incarcerated youth at the
Youth Development Center in Hudson, Ohio.
Later, he served four years as a juvenile
probation officer in Cuyahoga County, and
then, for six years he was a Common Pleas
Court bailiff to the Honorable Donald C.
Nugent, now a Federal Judge for the Northern
District of Ohio. Judge Gallagher was an
Assistant Prosecuting Attorney for Cuyahoga
County in the felony division from
1991-1997. He served three years in the
Economic Crime Unit of that office.
Judge Gallagher serves as
chairperson of the Supreme Court of Ohio’s
Commission on the Rules of Practice and
Procedures for Ohio Courts (2008-2010). He
also serves on the Ohio Judicial Conference
Criminal Law and Procedure Committee. In
2009, Judge Gallagher completed the Advanced
Science and Technology Adjudication Resource
(ASTAR) program in Washington, D.C., and was
named a science and technology fellow. He
has been an instructor with the Supreme
Court of Ohio Judicial College for more than
ten years. In addition, he has served as an
instructor with the American Bar
Association, the Ohio Highway Patrol, the
Cleveland Police Academy and the Cleveland
Browns. Judge Gallagher previously served as
president of the Northern Ohio Municipal
Judges Association in 2001-2002.
Judge Gallagher was named
"Legal Eagle - Man of the Year" for St.
Edward High School in 2005. He received the
"President’s Award" for service with the
Cuyahoga County Bar Association in 2006 and
was named one of the Outstanding Alumni for
Cleveland-Marshall College of Law in 2007.
Judge Gallagher received
his B.A. degree from Ohio University and his
J.D. from Cleveland-Marshall College of Law.
He is a graduate of St. Edward High School
(Lakewood). Judge Gallagher is a member of
the bar in Ohio and Arizona. He is married,
and he and his wife are the proud parents of
one son. He holds dual citizenship in both
the United States and the Republic of
Ireland.