Mark Plawecki

Mark J. Plawecki (born April 25, 1961) is a district judge from the U.S. state of Michigan. His district (the 20th) comprises the city of Dearborn Heights, located in suburban Detroit.^[1] He was elected to the seat in 1994, and is currently in his fifth term as Chief Judge for that court.

Early life

Plawecki attended Detroit Catholic Central and graduated from Dearborn Heights Riverside High school, where he was All-League in tennis, in 1979. He graduated from Michigan State University in 1983 with a bachelor's degree in Business Administration, and earned his juris doctorate from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in 1987.^[2] Plawecki then practiced general law, eventually becoming president of the firm Rombach, Plawecki, and Viggiani. During that time he was also prosecutor for the city of Hazel Park.

Judicial career

Elected to the bench in 1994, Plawecki was the youngest judge (age 33) in Dearborn Heights history. He has been re-elected, without opposition,^[3] in 1996, 2002, 2008, and 2014. He is a past president of both the Wayne County District Judges Association and the Polish American Legal Society (PALS) for Michigan.^[4]

On March 30, 2016, Plawecki announced he was running for the Michigan Supreme Court seat vacated by Justice Mary Beth Kelly.^[5] He has been endorsed by the Mayor, Clerk, Treasurer, and every City Council member of Dearborn Heights. He has also received an endorsement from the Michigan Association for Justice, a trade group of 1600 attorneys "dedicated to the preservation of justice."^[6]

Personal life

Plawecki is the author of How Could You Trade Billy Pierce?, which introduced his sabermetric formula for rating major league baseball pitchers,^[7] and Notes from Outside the Truman Show, which offers his views of the current crisis of U.S. democracy. He was married to Julie Plawecki, the state Representative from Michigan's 11th House district. They had three daughters: Rachel, Lauren, and Monica. Julie Plawecki died in June 2016.^[8]

References