Summit County, Ohio: Summit County Common Pleas Court Judge Mary Margaret Rowlands presented the 2017 Access to Justice Scholarship to University of Akron third year law student Kenton Steele.

Mr. Steele applied for this prestigious scholarship through the National Association of Women Judges’ (NAWJ) Access to Justice Scholarship Program. The NAWJ provides this scholarship to a deserving University of Akron School of Law student who participated in Akron Law’s Summer Trial Academy and is in good academic standing. The scholarship is awarded to a student who is committed to the achievement of equality of opportunity and access in the justice system.

Judge Rowlands serves as the Ohio Chair of the National Association of Women Judges District 7 which includes Ohio, Michigan, and Kentucky. The National Association of Women Judges’ mission is to “promote the judicial role of protecting the rights of individuals under the rule of law through strong, committed, diverse judicial leadership; fairness and equality in the courts; and equal access to justice.”

The Honorable Mary Margaret Rowlands earned her J.D. from The University of Akron School of Law in 1989 and has been a judge since 2009. Judge Rowlands is dedicated to diversity and equality in the legal profession, protecting individual rights, fairness and equality in the courts, and equal access to justice. Drawing from her pre-judicial career as a trial lawyer, she worked with Professor Dana Cole and others to create the Summer Trial Academy in 2015.