Justice Christine E. Keller elected senior status effective on March 31, 2022. On an as-needed basis, she will continue to hear arguments before the Supreme Court.

Justice Keller is an honors graduate of Smith College (1974) and an honors graduate of the University of Connecticut School of Law (1977). Governor Ned Lamont nominated her to the Supreme Court in 2020; the General Assembly approved her nomination on October 1, 2020. Prior to her appointment to the Supreme Court, Justice Keller was a judge of the Appellate Court from 2013 to 2020, after serving as a Superior Court Judge since 1993. She also was a family support magistrate from 1989 to 1993.

Prior to her appointment as a family support magistrate and after graduation from law school, Justice Keller practiced family and personal injury law at Neighborhood Legal Services in Hartford. She subsequently worked at the Office of the Corporation Counsel for the City of Hartford and the law firm of Ritter and Keller.

As a Superior Court Judge, she served as Presiding Judge in both the Hartford and Plainville juvenile courts, and also served terms in Waterbury criminal court, New Britain civil and family courts, the Middletown Regional Child Protection Session, and Hartford criminal and civil courts. From 1997 to 2002, she served as the statewide Chief Administrative Judge for Juvenile Matters.

In 2005, she was appointed Administrative Judge for the Judicial District of Hartford, a position she held until 2007, when she was reappointed a second time as Chief Administrative Judge for Juvenile Matters, a position she held until 2012. In 2008, the Connecticut Bar Association awarded Justice Keller the Henry J. Naruk Judiciary Award, presented annually to a Connecticut judge for judicial excellence. In 2012, she received the Connecticut Juvenile Court Innovation and Leadership Award. She is also a James Cooper Fellow of the Connecticut Bar Foundation. In addition, she was named the 2022 recipient of the Hartford County Bar Association’s John M. Bailey Memorial Award for Public Service.

Justice Keller served on numerous task forces and committees affecting juvenile justice reform, including the Juvenile Justice Advisory Committee, the Juvenile Justice Policy Oversight Coordinating Council, which addressed legislation raising the jurisdictional age for juvenile delinquency, the Family With Service Needs Advisory Board and the Child Advocate Advisory Board. She also served on the Public Access and Trust Commission and the Governor’s Task Force on Judicial Reform, both of which addressed a variety of proposed reforms in the Judicial Branch. From 1997 to 2005, Justice Keller was a member of the Superior Court Rules Committee. She was a member of the Judicial Review Council, the state disciplinary body for judges, from 2006 to 2008, the chair of the Judicial Branch Committee on Judicial Ethics, from 2015 to 2017, and a member of a subcommittee proposing revisions to the Code of Judicial Conduct.

She is a member of the Connecticut Bar Association and the Connecticut Judges Association, where she held the offices of secretary and vice-president.

Justice Keller has been a faculty member of the Connecticut Judges’ Institute, conducting seminars on judicial ethics and juvenile law for other Connecticut judges. She has lectured on juvenile topics in numerous attorney training programs and has participated in appellate advocacy trainings. She also is a former president of the Hartford chapter of the Inns of Court, a networking and training group for newly admitted attorneys.