Grace Helen Whitener
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Grace Helen Whitener (born 1964/1965) is a
Trinidadian-American Trinidadian and Tobagonian Americans (also known as Trinbagonian Americans) are people with Trinidadian and Tobagonian ancestry or immigrants who were born in Trinidad and Tobago. Trinidad and Tobago is home to people of many different national, ...
attorney and
jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...
serving as an associate justice of the Washington Supreme Court. Whitener was nominated by Governor Jay Inslee on April 13, 2020, to fill the seat of retiring justice
Charles K. Wiggins Charles K. Wiggins (born September 7, 1947) is a former member of the Washington Supreme Court. He was elected to the court in 2010, defeating incumbent Richard B. Sanders. Biography Early life and education Wiggins grew up the son of a career w ...
.


Early life and education

Whitener was born and raised in Trinidad. She moved to the United States when she was 16 to receive medical care. She earned a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in international marketing and trade from Baruch College, followed by a
Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...
from the
Seattle University School of Law Seattle University School of Law, or Seattle Law School, or SU Law (formerly University of Puget Sound School of Law) is the law school affiliated with Seattle University, the Northwest's largest independent university. The School is accredite ...
.


Career

After graduating from law school, Whitener worked as a
public defender A public defender is a lawyer appointed to represent people who otherwise cannot reasonably afford to hire a lawyer to defend themselves in a trial. Several countries provide people with public defenders, including the UK, Hungary and Singapore, ...
, prosecutor, and private defense attorney. She served as a judge on the Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals for two years and then on the Pierce County Superior Court from 2015 to 2020, having been appointed by Governor Inslee and elected unopposed in 2015 and 2016. On April 13, 2020, she was appointed to the Washington Supreme Court by Governor Jay Inslee. She successfully ran for election in 2020 for the remaining two years of Wiggins's term, winning 66% of the vote.


Personal life

She is the first African-American, LGBTQ judge in Washington and second African-American member of the Washington Supreme Court after Charles Z. Smith. She is disabled. Whitener is co-chair of the Washington State Minority and Justice Commission. Whitner is married to Lynn Rainey, a fellow graduate of the
Seattle University School of Law Seattle University School of Law, or Seattle Law School, or SU Law (formerly University of Puget Sound School of Law) is the law school affiliated with Seattle University, the Northwest's largest independent university. The School is accredite ...
and an LGBTQ activist.


See also

* List of African-American jurists * List of LGBT jurists in the United States *
List of LGBT state supreme court justices in the United States Below is a list of the names of the LGBT persons who have served on the highest court of a state or territory in the United States. The first state with an LGBT justice was Oregon, where Rives Kistler was named to the bench in 2003. The first U. ...
* List of first women lawyers and judges in Washington


References


External links


Campaign biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitener, Helen 1960s births Year of birth uncertain Living people 21st-century American judges 21st-century American women judges African-American judges African-American lawyers American women lawyers Baruch College alumni Justices of the Washington Supreme Court LGBT African Americans LGBT appointed officials in the United States Trinidad and Tobago LGBT people LGBT people from Washington (state) Seattle University School of Law alumni Superior court judges in the United States Washington (state) lawyers Washington (state) state court judges 21st-century African-American women 21st-century African-American people LGBT judges Public defenders American prosecutors