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At the end of 2025, Washington will say goodbye to a remarkable jurist. Washington Supreme Court Justice Mary Yu is retiring after 25 years on the bench. For many of us in the legal community, the news felt like a real loss. But it is also an opportunity to look back and celebrate a career devoted to justice, fairness, and inclusion.
From Working-Class Chicago to the Washington Supreme Court
Justice Yu’s story began on the south side of Chicago. She grew up in a working-class neighborhood, the daughter of immigrant parents—her father from China and her mother from Mexico. Her parents believed deeply in education, and she attended Catholic schools before earning both undergraduate and graduate degrees in religious studies.
Her faith and values led her into work focused on social justice. After graduate school, she joined the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Peace and Justice Office, which tackled systemic inequality and poverty. During this time, she worked as a community organizer in Chicago—the same world in which a young Barack Obama was also organizing.
Over ten years in that role, she came to see that lasting change often required changes in the law. Community organizing could shine a light on injustice, but the legal system could remove it. That realization led her to the University of Notre Dame Law School.
Finding a Home in Washington
While in law school, Yu was recruited for an internship by then–King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng. That internship brought her to Seattle—and she never left.
She joined the King County Prosecutor’s Office, where she served until 2000. That year, she was appointed to the King County Superior Court. In 2014, she was appointed to the Washington Supreme Court, where she has served with distinction ever since.
A Career of “Firsts”
Justice Yu has broken many barriers throughout her life and career. Among those are she was the first in her family to graduate from college. She was the first openly gay justice on the Washington Supreme Court. She was also the first Asian American and Latina justice on the court.
More Than Just a Judge
Justice Yu has always seen the law as a tool to serve people, not an abstract set of rules. She has gone far beyond the traditional role of a judge to make the legal system more humane and more accessible.
Over the years, she has performed roughly 1,300 adoptions for same-sex couples. And when same-sex marriage became legal in Washington at 12:01 a.m. on December 9, 2012, she began performing weddings right away—because, in her view, those couples had already waited long enough.
Her impact also reaches deep into the structure of our justice system. She served for many years as co-chair of the Washington Supreme Court Minority & Justice Commission. That Commission’s work has helped drive changes in our laws and policies to address racial and ethnic disparities in the criminal justice system.
She is also a passionate mentor. Justice Yu has long supported the Washington Leadership Institute, a program that develops lawyers from communities that have historically been excluded from leadership roles in the profession. The program, now housed at the University of Washington, reflects her belief that the future of justice depends on who gets a seat at the table.
A Legacy of Fairness and Faith
At the heart of Justice Yu’s work is a simple principle: every person deserves a fair and just result under the law. In every case, she has sought to reach that result. And when the law did not yet allow for the most equitable outcome, she worked to move the law incrementally in that direction.
She often says that her true legacy is her belief in the next generation—the lawyers, judges, and community leaders who will carry the work forward.
Guided by her faith and her commitment to justice and equity, Justice Mary Yu has spent her career living her principles, not just talking about them.
As she retires from the Washington Supreme Court, our state is losing an extraordinary jurist, mentor, and leader. Her influence, however, will continue in the laws she helped shape, the institutions she strengthened, and the many people she has inspired.
You can listen to her “exit interview” on the Inside Olympia podcast with Austin Jenkins where she provides a thoughtful look back at her career, or read about it in an article published by TVW.