Cincinnati, OH. – Retired Judge Nadine Lovelace Allen received the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. An accomplished listee, Judge Allen celebrates many years of experience in her professional network, and has been noted for achievements, leadership qualities, and the credentials and successes she has accrued in her field.

Throughout the course of her career,

Judge Allen was notably the first African American female public defender to be appointed to the Legal Aid Society and the first African American to be elected to a contested judicial seat in Hamilton County. Judge Allen was also the first female Democrat to be elected to any county office and the first biracial (African American and Italian) person to be elected to any Office in Hamilton County.

Judge Allen enjoyed a successful tenure in law as both an attorney and judge for more than four decades. Beginning her career as an attorney for the Legal Aid Society in 1978, she subsequently worked for the Hamilton County Public Defender’s Office in Cincinnati as an attorney and public defender from 1979 to 1985, where she became aware of disparities in the justice system. Judge Allen was then elected to serve as a judge in the Hamilton County Municipal Court and Common Pleas Court since 1985.

Spending the next 30 years addressing inequalities, some of Judge Allen’s most notable work included reducing the marijuana law to a minor misdemeanor, dismissing over 30,000 stale criminal warrants, developing a license intervention program and expanding drug and alcohol programs. During her tenure as a judge, she founded the Just Solutions Commission which was notably responsible for spearheading alternatives to jail and diversion programs.

Among other professional accomplishments, Judge Allen served as a member of the Ohio Supreme Court Board of Commissioners. She was also an adjunct professor at the University  of Cincinnati in the paralegal studies program and was a special instructor for the Ohio Supreme Court Judicial College. Judge Allen officially retired in 2016.