“This job is what you want to make it.” Saying that, Ronald B. Adrine has become one of the most respected judges in Cleveland, as well as a national authority on issues concerning domestic violence.

A life-long resident of Greater Cleveland, Judge Adrine graduated from Fisk University and the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. He passed the bar in 1973, and in 1974 he joined the staff of the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor as an assistant in the criminal trial division. In 1976, he entered the private practice of law with his father, the late Russell T. Adrine and two years later was appointed to serve as a Senior Staff Counsel to the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations. He first ran for his current seat on the Cleveland Municipal Court bench in 1981.

“I ran for judge in protest,” noted Judge Adrine, “after experiencing how poorly many people were treated in the court system. Over time, I’ve come to appreciate how great the entire court’s impact is on the lives of the people it serves.”

Judge Adrine was reelected five times, without opposition, to full six-year terms, the most recent election being in November of 2011. His peers elected him Administrative and Presiding Judge in 2008 and reelected him to that position in 2009, 2010, and 2011.

Judge Adrine has belonged to more than 60 organizations over the years, serving on the boards of more than 30 of those organizations, and holding a leadership position on more than 20 of those boards. He chaired the Ohio Commission on Racial Fairness. He is the immediate past chair of the Ohio Supreme Court’s Interpreter Services Advisory Committee and the National Board of Directors of the Family Violence Prevention Fund.. He chairs Cleveland’s Domestic Violence Coordinating Council and the effort to bring a Family Justice Center to Cleveland. He also co-chairs the Advisory Board of the National Judicial Institute on Domestic Violence, a joint initiative of the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, the Family Violence Prevention Fund and the U.S. Department of Justice.

Judge Adrine lectures extensively on domestic violence issues here, and around the country, including in the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. He is co-author of “Ohio Domestic Violence Law,” part of Thompson-West Legal Publishing Company’s Ohio Handbook Series. He has been honored as a Distinguished Alumni of both Cleveland State University and the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. In 2000, he was awarded the Ohio Bar Medal by the Ohio State Bar Association, its highest honor, in recognition of his contributions to the profession and the community.