Judge Elinore Marsh Stormer graduated from Davidson College’s Honors College. She received her Juris Doctorate from The University of Akron School of Law. Judge Stormer practiced law in the private sector until 1989 when she was appointed General Counsel to the Summit County Executive.
In her many years of service, Judge Stormer has been a trailblazer who transformed systems at nearly every level of judicial practice. Judge Stormer remains a leader in bringing the concept of therapeutic jurisprudence to Ohio. She was elected to the Akron Municipal Court and re-elected in 1993 and 1999. She began the first Municipal Drug Court and the first Mental Health Specialty Court in Ohio.
As a judge, she has led the effort to provide specialized treatment for offenders. In November 2004, Judge Stormer was elected to the Summit County Court of Common Pleas. In keeping with her commitment to intelligent sentencing and a “smart on crime” approach, in 2006, she began Summit County’s first Reentry Court to assist felons returning from prison to become law-abiding citizens. She was reelected in 2010.
The General Division Judges elected Judge Stormer as Administrative Judge for 2007, 2008, and again in 2009. In this position, she oversaw budgetary and personnel matters for a court of 157 employees.
After her 2012 election to Summit County Probate Court, Judge Stormer started a Mediation Program and a free Help Desk. She created the Senior Visitor and Volunteer Guardian Programs, both serving indigent wards under this Court’s jurisdiction some of our most vulnerable citizens.
In January 2016, Judge Stormer began the New Day Court, the first of its kind in Ohio, to help those under civil commitment avoid returning to the hospital by providing a path to recovery for those suffering from severe mental illness. Judge Stormer currently serves on the national Board of Directors of the Treatment Advocacy Center, a U.S. non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating legal and other barriers to the effective treatment of severe mental illness. New Day Court has quickly become a national model with frequent visitors from across the state and country attending the court to learn best practices.
Judge Stormer is currently a member of the Probate Section of the Ohio Judicial Conference. She has served on many Boards including Akron Children’s Hospital, Women’s Network, Weathervane Playhouse, Oriana House Advisory Board, and The Salvation Army Advisory Board as well as the Supreme Court of Ohio Advisory Committee on the Mentally Ill in the Courts, and numerous other community organizations.
In September of 2022, Judge Elinore Marsh Stormer was awarded the 2022 Thomas J. Moyer Award for Judicial Excellence. The Ohio Bar Association declared Stormer as the clear choice for this year’s award due to her innovations that have reshaped judicial practices and created innovative firsts in Ohio and Summit County throughout her career. The Moyer award annually recognizes a judge who displays outstanding qualities of judicial excellence including integrity, fairness, open-mindedness, knowledge of the law, professionalism, ethics, creativity, sound judgment, courage, and decisiveness. The Ohio State Bar presented the award on September 15, 2022, at their annual meeting at the Ohio Judicial Conference in Columbus.
Judge Stormer has received many community awards including the 2022 Community Medal from The Salvation Army of Akron and Summit County, 2018 Harvey L Sterns Lifetime Achievement Award from Direction Home, the 2018 Russ Pry Community Leader of the Year Award from The Summit County Developmental Disability Board, the Compass Award, from PEGS foundation, formally the Margaret Clark Morgan Foundation, for her long-term contributions that have made an impact in mental health, the Vantage Aging SOAR/Ed Kaufman Leadership in Aging Award in 2017, the 2016 Akron Bar Association Liberty Bell Award, the 2015 Woman of Achievement Award from Women’s Network, the 2014 Pinnacle Award of Summit County and the Spirit Award from Stewart’s Caring Place. In 2013, she received the Outstanding Alumni Award from the University of Akron Law School and the Fred Frese Advocacy Award, the ATHENA Award for Leadership, the HEROES Award from the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the statewide OCCO C. J. McLin Award, the Urban Light Award for Public Service, the Outstanding Leadership Award from Mental Health America of Summit County and the Public Official of the Year Award from the DAR.
As an additional service to the community, she created the Curated Courthouse, a partnership between the Summit County Probate Court and the Curated Storefront. This Knight Arts Challenge is a matching grant awarded in 2019 to bring art of both established and emerging artists, as respite and representation, to the Historic Summit County Courthouse. This partnership was also the winner of the Arts Alive Collaboration Awards of 2020.
View Ohio State Bar Association Member Spotlight: Honorable Elinore Marsh Stormer
Judge Stormer Receives the Thomas J. Moyer Award for Judicial Excellence. Read More…
