Gov. Mike DeWine has picked Highland Heights attorney Pamela A. Hawkins to fill an open seat on the Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas, Domestic Relations Division, stepping into a court that has been through the wringer in recent months. Hawkins is scheduled to take the bench on May 4, 2026, to finish out the term and will have to run in the November 2026 general election if she wants to keep the job.
The governor’s office announced the appointment on April 17, 2026, according to Cleveland.com, which reports that DeWine named Hawkins to the domestic relations bench to fill the vacancy created by former Judge Leslie Ann Celebrezze’s resignation in December.
Hawkins’s résumé covers a lot of ground. She holds a B.A. in child development and psychology from Harding University, a master’s in education from Cleveland State University, a master’s in social administration from Case Western Reserve University, and a J.D. from Cleveland–Marshall College of Law. Her legal career has included a 2001 pro bono fellowship at Applewood Centers, private practice, litigation-support work and, beginning in 2010, service as an assistant Cuyahoga County prosecutor in the Children & Family Services unit, according to her judicial biography on Judicial Votes Count.