JESSICA SHAMBAUGH
Daily Reporter
After nine years on the Franklin County Court of Common Pleas bench Judge Julie Lynch is still just as passionate about her city as she always has been.
“I am from Columbus, I was born, bred and raised here, and I really do consider this my community,” she said. “So the best part is that I get to affect, in hopefully a positive manner, how we live, how you live, how I live, how all of us live.”
Growing up in Whitehall, Lynch graduated from Whitehall Yearling High School at 16.
At 19 she married and “moved away” from her neighborhood, though she said she didn’t move any place exotic — the couple settled down in Columbus.
For a few years she stayed busy as a stay-at-home mother, keeping her three children fed, healthy and happy while her husband worked.
But around the time she found out she was expecting a fourth child, her marriage fell apart.
“At that time I had to sit down and say, ‘What are your strengths, what are your weaknesses?’ I had a family, I just was not going to have those kids be the ones holding the signs up on the road ‘Will work for food’ and so I just looked at what was natural for me,” Lynch said.
What was natural for her was advocating and arguing.
She said growing up as the youngest of seven, her siblings always came to her to advocate to their parents or get them out of trouble.
So, she started working on an English degree at The Ohio State University, laughing that she was the girl who sat in the back of the class nursing an infant during lectures.
She jokes that her youngest daughter, now 25 and a recent OSU graduate, should have felt right at home when she attended for her own undergraduate degree.
After years of the balancing act she was able to graduate from Capital University Law School in 1993 and move back to Whitehall to be closer to her family.
Immediately after graduation Lynch started working for a small private practice before taking an opportunity in the attorney general’s office.
Her reputation as a lawyer and as an active Whitehall community member soon spread and she said she was encouraged to run for city council.
While she enjoyed her time on the city council, Lynch said she “constantly felt like the information that the city attorney was giving to council was not proper legal advice.”
“Since I was a lawyer I was like ‘Well, I’m going to run because I think I could do a better job.’ And I did,” she said.
Lynch was able to beat the incumbent and took over as the Whitehall city attorney.
Her efforts in the position were noticed by others around the city and before long she was appointed to the Franklin County Municipal Court bench.
When she ran to hold her position, however, she was defeated.
“Fate sort of has a way that plays in all of our lives,” she said. “You apply for a job, you want it really bad, you don’t get it, and then you realize at your next job you can see why you didn’t get it. You’re disappointed and you can’t figure it out, but then life hands you a little freshness.”
The “freshness” for Lynch was an opening on the common pleas bench.
She ran for the spot and was elected in 2005 and although she said she liked working in muni court, she loves her current job.
“I love the problems that are put in front of me on a daily basis, I love the nasty crimes that I get to help right,” she said, noting that the complexity of the cases is a much better fit for her personality.
Between her time on the bench and trying to lure her children back to Columbus, three of whom have settled in Chicago, Lynch said she likes to focus on healthy living.
She said she does yoga daily, often on her lunch break, and that it has provided a release that burns energy and keeps her “in touch with the spirit.”
She has recently started studying food as medicine and naturopathic medicine.
Always a voracious reader, Lynch has focused that hobby on learning about the toxins in various foods and how the body works in relations to the food she consumes.
“It’s just so interesting the way the body works, and you just realize how technology has even changed the way we eat,” she said, noting that she tries to eat clean and green.
She said her healthy habits aren’t focused on weight goals or physique, but instead on longevity and making the most out of her time.
Aside from her food, Lynch enjoys watching golf in the hopes of improving her own golf game and traveling.
She took a trip to Egypt several years ago and the current climate in that country has taught her that it’s important to take opportunities when they present themselves because had she put the trip off she may never have been able to go.
She said she also makes regular trips to Europe but that the change in the value of the Euro is starting to make her question going back.
“It’s no fun to travel there now because you just get gouged,” she said. “I don’t know where it’s cheap to travel and honestly where it’s getting safe.”
Though Lynch is admittedly not a participant in any of the legal groups around Columbus, she is an active board member for the Columbus Association of Performing Arts.
She said she formerly studied ballet until the studio moved further from her home. Currently, she said she paints and tries to “do as much artsy stuff as I can.”
She said she chose CAPA rather than one of the many legal organizations around town in an attempt to balance her life.
“I like to be able to leave this here and have the rest of my life be with joy and I find the arts make me feel joyful and I believe they spread joy,” she said.