INDIANAPOLIS – Judge Patricia A. Riley will retire from the Court of Appeals of Indiana on August 30, 2024. Her retirement ceremony will be held in the Supreme Court Courtroom on Friday, August 16, 2024.
Judge Riley was the fourth woman ever to be appointed to the Court. She was appointed in 1994 by Governor Evan Bayh. During her thirty-year tenure, she has authored approximately 4,232 majority opinions and participated in 439 oral arguments.
Before serving on the Court of Appeals, Judge Riley served the public as a Deputy Prosecutor in Marion County and as a Public Defender in Marion and Jasper counties. She also served as a judge of the Jasper Superior Court from 1990 to 1993.
Notably, Judge Riley has extensive international legal experience. In 2008, she cofounded the Legal Aid Centre of Eldoret, Kenya (LACE), which provides legal access to justice for HIV/AIDS patients in the AMPATH medical center. In 2011, Judge Riley traveled with the Washington, D.C.-based International Judicial Academy to The Hague, Netherlands, to observe the International Criminal Court and two International Criminal Tribunals hearing cases from Sierra Leone and the former Yugoslavia. Then, in 2012, she participated in the 3rd Sino-U.S. Law Conference held in Beijing at the National Judges College of the People’s Republic of China, which oversees all aspects of that country’s judicial training, placement, and promotion. In 2013, she attended the Justice Academy of Turkey, where she presented her paper on the ethics rules in the United States. In 2014, the Pentagon granted her and others from IU McKinney’s Program in International Human Rights Law special “NGO Observer Status” to monitor hearings at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Judge Riley’s legal memberships include the Indianapolis Bar Association, the Marion County Bar Association, and the Indiana State Bar Association. She is the former chair of the Appellate Practice Section of the Indiana State Bar Association and is a member of the ABA’s Judicial Division. She also is a member of the Indiana Judges Association and the National Association of Women Judges.
Beyond the courtroom, Judge Riley has served on the Board of Directors of Recycle Force, a social enterprise focused on the re-entry of returning citizens from incarceration. She has also served on the Board of Visitors of the Robert H. McKinney School of Law Alumni Association and is a member of the Indianapolis Rotary Club.
For these reasons and many more, Judge Patricia A. Riley’s contributions and service will always make the Court of Appeals a better institution.
