Salt Lake City, UT—Mary Aguirre-Shahin, Esq., has been appointed as the new director of the Utah Judicial Institute, which is the education arm of the Utah State Courts. Shahin replaces Diane Cowdrey who accepted a position with the Administrative Office of the Courts in California. In her position with the Utah State Courts, Shahin will oversee the development of judicial education programs for judges and court staff throughout the state.
Prior to joining the Utah State Courts, Shahin worked in Afghanistan as a legal advisor for a U.S. State Department judicial reform project. In that capacity she trained prosecutors and police officers and conducted the first ever comprehensive assessment of the judiciary in northern Afghanistan. Before this, she worked closely with the Ministry of Justice in Jordan on a USAID judicial reform project. In 2004, Shahin served as general counsel to the Supreme Court of Micronesia where she developed training programs for Pacific Island judges. She has also worked for the American Bar Association where she assisted with the first ever Judicial Education Conference for more than 400 judges in the kingdom of Jordan.
Shahin began her work in judicial education in 1998 at the National Judicial College in Reno, Nevada, where she developed award-winning judicial education programs. Her innovative “Courage to Live Judicial Outreach Education Program,” received national awards and acclaim and serves as a model judicial outreach program throughout the country.
Shahin is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and an honor law graduate of Hastings Law School in San Francisco, California. Prior to her judicial education career, Shahin worked as a trial attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. where she was awarded the Attorney General’s Special Achievement Award. She has practiced environmental law with California law firms whose clients included Fortune 500 companies.