Mary Triggiano

Hon. Mary E. Triggiano is the Director of the Andrew Center for Restorative Justice and Clinical Professor of Law at Marquette University Law School where she teaches restorative justice and leads the Restorative Justice Clinic. From 2017 to 2020, she also co-taught Problem-Solving Courts and Neuroscience of Trauma, integrating restorative justice, trauma, and trauma-informed care into the curriculum.

Prior to joining Marquette Law, Judge Triggiano served as Chief Judge of the Milwaukee County Circuit Court, District 1. Appointed to the bench by Governor Jim Doyle in 2004, she began in the Children’s Division, where she engaged in restorative justice circles at Green Bay Correctional Institution with (Ret.) Justice Janine Geske and helped implement restorative dialogues in youth cases in Milwaukee. She later presided in Domestic Violence Court, returned to Children’s Court to lead the Family Drug Treatment Court, and established Wisconsin’s first Healthy Infant Court. Her final judicial assignment was in the Civil Division. She served more than four years as Deputy Chief Judge under Chief Judge Maxine White before becoming Chief Judge in February 2020.

Before her judicial appointment, she was Managing Attorney at Legal Action of Wisconsin (1994–2004) and a litigation associate at Reinhart Boerner (1988–1994).

Judge Triggiano is a past president of the Association for Women Lawyers and a member of the State Bar of Wisconsin (serving on its Board of Governors for four years), Milwaukee Bar Association, and Wisconsin Association of African American Lawyers. She is a former member of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges. As Chief Judge, she served on the Committee of Chief Judges, taught at Judicial College, and participated on the Judicial Education Committee. She has also served on the boards of the Wisconsin Trial Judges Association and Milwaukee Trial Judges Association and on numerous state and national committees related to child well-being, child abuse prevention, children and families, and problem-solving courts. She currently serves on the boards of the Neuroscience Research Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Wisconsin Community Services, and the Wisconsin Appleseed Foundation.

For more than 30 years, she has taught and presented locally and nationally on restorative justice, trauma-informed care, childhood trauma, child welfare law, problem-solving courts, evidence-based sentencing, domestic violence, and judicial leadership.

Judge Triggiano has received numerous honors, including the Wisconsin Law Journal Women in the Law Award; Project Return’s Gwen Moore Restorative Justice Award; the Wisconsin Law Foundation’s Charles L. Goldberg Distinguished Service Award; multiple awards from the Association for Women Lawyers; the Justinian Society Jurist of the Year Award; the Milwaukee Bar Association E. Michael McCann Distinguished Public Service Award; the Wisconsin Association of Treatment Court Professionals’ Aulik Award; and the MICAH To Do What Is Just Award, among others.