Jeanne E. LaFazia, a 1980 graduate of Suffolk University Law School , was sworn in April 9, 2010, as chief judge of the Rhode Island District Court by Gov. Donald L. Carcieri.

LaFazia is the third chief judge in the Rhode Island District Court’s 41-year modern history, and she is the first woman to hold the post. She succeeds the late Chief Judge Albert E. DeRobbio.

LaFazia was first appointed to the district court as an associate judge in 2002.

She is co-chair of the Planning Committee for Judicial Conferences through which she organizes continuing legal education for all judges statewide, and she is on the District Court Bench Bar Committee with the Rhode Island Bar Association. She is on the Code of Judicial Conduct Task Force and on the subcommittee for new judges in the Rhode Island Trial Judges Association.

Before her appointment as a judge, LaFazia was an associate, partner, and managing partner in the law firm of Gunning & LaFazia, where she worked with her father and mentor, attorney Raymond LaFazia.

She served on the Commission on Judicial Tenure and Discipline from 1996 to 2002 and the Rhode Island Parole Board from 1997 to 2002.