Chief Judge Leona Colegrove is a proud Quinault, Hupa and Saanich. She is a graduate of the University of Washington School of Law with a Concentration in Alternative Dispute Resolution. In addition to the Quinault Nation Court, she is also the Chief Judge of the Elk Valley Rancheria in Northern California. She has been practicing law since 2000 and began her judicial career in both Tribal and State Court in 2006.
She has extensive experience developing and operating tribal alternative criminal and juvenile courts, to include the first adult wellness/drug courts for both the Quinault and Quileute Tribes. She has also developed joint jurisdiction alternative Courts to include the Hoopa Tribal and Humboldt County joint jurisdiction family wellness court.
In addition to her judicial work, Judge Colegrove is an attorney and has litigated On behalf of Tribes and Tribal members in both Tribal and State Court. She was the first Indian Judge to sit on the Washington State Supreme Court Commission on Children in Foster Care. She is an expert at expanding victim protections in the communities that she serves, developing victims of crime programming available at her Courts.
She’s held positions on the Washington State Tribal Court Judges Association Governing Board, the National American Indian Court Judges Associations Executive Board, the California Tribal State Court Forum and the WA Tribal/State Court Consortium.