Katie O'Malley


Catherine "Katie" Curran O'Malley is a Baltimore City District Court judge and wife of Martin O'Malley, the former Governor of Maryland and Mayor of Baltimore, and 2016 presidential candidate.

Life and career

She is the daughter of Barbara Marie and former state Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. Her educational background includes attending high school at Notre Dame Preparatory School and earning an undergraduate degree from Towson State University and a law degree from the University of Baltimore. While attending law school, she met University of Maryland law student Martin O'Malley, and they wed in 1990. She and her husband have four children, Grace, Tara, William, and Jack.
Upon graduation from law school in 1991, she accepted a job as an Assistant State's Attorney in Baltimore County, serving in that post until her appointment as a judge. On August 16, 2001, then-Governor Parris Glendening appointed her to a 10-year term, expiring in 2011, as an Associate Judge for the First District Court of Maryland, encompassing the city of Baltimore.
O'Malley became First Lady of Maryland in January 2007 when her husband took office as governor. As a judge, she was prohibited by judicial code of conduct from joining her husband in partisan campaign events. Martin O'Malley's governorship ended in January 2015.
As a judge, O'Malley serves on the steering committee of the Maryland/Leningrad Region Rule of Law Partnership. In her combined role as first lady, she welcomed judges' delegations annually from Saint Petersburg, Russia, to Government House for receptions and working dinners. In February 2008, O'Malley and others led a reciprocal visit to Saint Petersburg to work on domestic-violence prevention and prosecution.