Biography

Sue Cochrane was born and raised in West St. Paul, Minnesota, and earned a B.A. in French and political science from Hamline University and a J.D. from William Mitchell College of Law. She served for 18 years on the family court bench in Minneapolis, where she pioneered a holistic and humane approach to conflict resolution. Previously, she had a private practice and was an attorney for the American Indian Family Center in St. Paul. When diagnosed with Stage 4 breast cancer, Sue retired from the bench, but lived joyfully for 10 more years, writing and speaking, devoting herself to family and friends, making art and practicing Buddhism, and, co-chairing an international symposium supported by the Fetzer Institute that focused on bringing love, compassion, and forgiveness into the law. She died on February 13, 2021.

In 2023, Mick Cochrane helped to finish publishing Sue’s book The Crystal Gavel. This book tells the story of Sue’s journey from a childhood marked by poverty, alcoholism, and violence, through her own recovery and healing, to her quest to humanize the courts and to afford all people a genuine and dignified hearing.

Visit Sue’s blog—The Movement of Healing—for more about her life, writing, and stories from the courtroom.