Hon. Al Butzbaugh, Chief Judge

Judge Al Butzbaugh is a Circuit Court judge assigned to the Criminal Division of the Berrien County Trial Court. Before his appointment to the bench by Governor Granholm in 2003, Judge Butzbaugh enjoyed 37 years of private practice within our community.

A life-long resident of Berrien County, Judge Butzbaugh was born and raised in Benton Harbor. He attended Benton Harbor public schools, and he is a graduate of Cranbrook School, the University of Michigan, and the University of Michigan Law School. He also earned an MBA from the University of Chicago.

Judge Butzbaugh is active locally, statewide and nationally in many capacities within the legal profession. He has served as the elected President of the 35,000 member State Bar of Michigan and, for his many contributions, has been honored with the Roberts P. Hudson Award, the State Bar’s most prestigious award given to a lawyer "whose career has exemplified the highest ideals of the profession." Judge Butzbaugh also has served as President of the Berrien County Bar Association from which he has received the Community Service Award for outstanding contributions to public service during his career.

Judge Butzbaugh has been involved in many civic activities, including founding the Youth Sports for Benton Harbor Endowment Fund and establishing the Chess Club at the Gifted and Talented Academy in Benton Harbor where he taught chess to third through sixth graders for five years. Statewide, he initiated the Access to Justice for All Development Campaign to provide funding for civil legal aid to the indigent, and he was instrumental in establishing the State Bar’s peer mediation program in schools.

Currently, he serves as trustee of the Lake Michigan College Foundation, trustee and vice president of the Michigan State Bar Foundation, trustee of the Michigan Supreme Court Historical Society, member of the Supreme Court Model Civil Jury Instructions Committee, and member of the State Community Corrections Board.

Judge Butzbaugh and his wife, Tiffany, live in Oronoko Township and are proud of their three children and five grandchildren.