Jennifer McTernan is a part-time Magistrate at Rocky River Municipal Court and a criminal defense attorney with over 12 years in practice since graduating from CSU College of Law and being admitted to the Ohio bar in 2013. Since then, she has also been admitted to the Sixth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals, the Northern District of Ohio, and the Southern District of Ohio.
As a practicing attorney, Jennifer has her own legal practice working out of an office in Cleveland’s Buckeye neighborhood, handling both retained work and assigned cases for those who are indigent and cannot afford counsel. She is in courtrooms on an almost daily basis throughout Cuyahoga County, handling a wide variety of cases ranging from low-level misdemeanors to high-level felonies to appeals. Yet, for the last 12 years, the majority of her practice has been handling cases downtown at the Justice Center in the same court she is running for judge.
While working as a Magistrate at Rocky River Municipal Court, Jennifer has further gained judicial experience presiding over a variety of criminal matters that come before the court. In this capacity, parties often come before her to present their case and their evidence. She listens, asks questions, considers what they have presented, and gives her decision – much like a judge would. Jennifer has already perceived just how her background in criminal defense litigation has truly been an asset in the additional mindfulness and perspective it has brought to this judicial role. As a criminal defense attorney, Jennifer has had the opportunity to not just briefly interact with those that now appear in front of her, but has actually gotten to know them at length throughout her representation of them, making her more mindful of the significance and impact of not just any sentence she now imposes, but any judicial decision she now makes that has the potential to impact the parties involved. She now looks to bring this additional insight to the Common Pleas bench.
Similarly, Jennifer has also found that her extensive experience handling cases on Cuyahoga County’s Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities specialty dockets has allowed her to better identify, understand, and address those needs from the bench. As these issues become even more prevalent in both the criminal justice system and society, she recognizes that perhaps the most effective deterrent to someone ending up back in court with a future case is addressing the underlying causes. She understands how critical it is to get individuals access to services, not just in the resolution of their cases, but in their everyday lives. Unfortunately, too often in her legal practice, she continues to observe individuals in need of mental health, developmental disability, and/or addiction services continuing to slip through the cracks in the legal system and not having their needs adequately addressed. This is in part due to flaws which she has observed with the county referral process – an issue which she would look to bring additional awareness to and attempt to address from the Common Pleas bench.
Jennifer McTernan is a lifelong Cuyahoga County resident. She grew up in Lyndhurst and is a proud product of the South Euclid-Lyndhurst public school system from elementary school all the way through Charles F. Brush High School. She now lives in Lakewood, where she is an active member of the Lakewood Democratic Club. She has also been on the Board of the Cuyahoga Criminal Defense Lawyers Association since 2019, is on the board of the non-profit R.H.E.M.A. Y.E.S., has been a coach with Lakewood High School’s Mock Trial Team since 2024, and is actively involved with a variety of other local professional organizations, non-profit organizations, and volunteer work.
