Judge Mary Ellen Coghlan has been assigned as an appellate court justice in the First District. 

Judge Coghlan was assigned to fill the opening created by the retirement of Appellate Justice Mary Anne Mason. The assignment of Judge Coghlan takes effect on July 30, and will remain in effect until further order of the court. 

Judge Coghlan was first appointed to the bench in 1995, and was elected to six-year term in 1996. She was subsequently retained for six-year terms in the November 2002, 2008, and 2014 elections. Judge Coghlan spent eight years as a felony trial judge in the criminal division and has spent the last 16 years in the probate division, serving as presiding judge of the probate division since December 2010.
 
Prior to her appointment to the bench, Coghlan was an assistant Cook County public defender for five years and an assistant attorney general in the General Law Division of the Illinois Attorney General's Office for eight years. 

Judge Coghlan was appointed in 2017 by the Illinois Supreme Court to serve as a member of the Judicial Inquiry Board for a term expiring in 2021, and serves as a member of the Cook County Circuit Court Associate Judge Nominating Committee. Coghlan has previously served terms as a member of the Illinois Judicial Conference Study Committee on Complex Litigation, as well as the Judicial Conference's Executive Committee and Strategic Planning Committee. 

Judge Coghlan earned her bachelor's degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and her Juris Doctor from the DePaul University College of Law.