Judge Julie A. Schafer

On November 8,2022 Julie A. Schafer was elected Judge of the Medina County Court of Common Pleas, Domestic Relations Division. Immediately prior to her election Judge Schafer was appointed on July 15, 2022 by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine as Judge of the Medina County Court of Common Pleas, Domestic Relations Division.

Immediately prior to her appointment to the bench, she served as a trial magistrate in Summit County Domestic Relations Court. In 2014, she was elected Judge for the 9th District Court of Appeals which serves a 4-county area, including Medina County, serving for six years, including as visiting judge in the Ohio Supreme Court and numerous other courts of appeal. She was elected Judge of Akron Municipal Court in 2013 and served one year prior to her service on the 9th District Court of Appeals.

Judge Schafer grew up in Falling Oaks and graduated from Medina High School. She went on to attend college at The Ohio State University and the University of Toledo and ultimately graduated from Brooks College in Long Beach, CA with an Associate of Arts degree. She remained in Los Angeles and began working in various aspects of costuming, wardrobe, and custom sewing, including for Lucas Films' Star Wars characters. After 11 years in Los Angeles, Judge Schafer moved back to Ohio in 1988 with her daughter, who is now an Assistant United States Attorney in Wheeling, WV and the mother to her two grandsons.

Judge Schafer earned her Bachelor of Arts degree from Hiram College in 1999 and her Juris Doctorate from the University of Akron while simultaneously earning her Master's in Business Administration in 2002. She was admitted to the Ohio bar in November 2002.

Judge Schafer started her career in law as a sole practitioner and then partner at Schafer & Carr, Co., LPA with her niece, Attorney Melissa Carr. She was a private practice attorney for 11+ years focusing primarily on domestic, juvenile and probate matters in numerous counties in northeastern Ohio. Her domestic relations practice encompassed divorce, dissolution, child custody, child support, post-decree and civil protection orders. In juvenile court, she represented children and parents as court appointed counsel in hundreds of juvenile court/child protective services (dependency, neglect and abuse) cases. She has served as a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) in juvenile court and as a Guardian ad litem for children in both juvenile courts and domestic relations courts. She has completed Ohio Supreme Court Mediation training twice - once in 2005 and the second time in 2021. In probate courts, she has been counsel for estate administrators, guardians and adoptive parents for both private and public agency adoptions. She also served as an arbitrator for the Better Business Administration.

Judge Schafer has served our communities by being a foster parent for fifteen years, caring for more than thirty children and adopting three. She was elected four times to the Copley-Fairlawn City Schools Board of Education and served on the Board of Trustees and the Executive Committee for the Ohio School Boards Association. She was President of the Northeast Region of the Ohio School Boards Association, which included Medina County. Judge Schafer is currently a member of the Board of Directors for Northeast Ohio Classical Academy, a public charter school providing classical education that is in the process of being organized for Medina County, projected to open in Fall 2024.

Judge Schafer is a member of the Medina County Bar Association, the Akron Bar Foundation and the Ohio State Bar Association.

She currently resides in Wadsworth with her three children (ages 15, 12, and 9), two dogs, two cats and 28 chickens.