Jamie L. Cork

The Honorable Jamie L. Cork

Board Director, National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges

Judge Cork was appointed to the First Judicial District Bench in August 2016, where she presides over a variety of cases including juvenile, Indian Child Welfare Act, family, criminal, civil and probate cases. Judge Cork co-chairs the Dakota County Domestic Violence Coordinated Community Response Team and the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative Elimination of Racial Bias Committee, she is also an active member of the First District Equal Justice Committee, Minnesota Children’s Justice Initiative (CJI), CJI Indian Child Welfare Act training faculty and subcommittee and CJI Parent Representation subcommittee.

Judge Cork is a former Assistant Hennepin County Attorney where she worked for over 18 years in the Child Protection Division. She specialized in Sexually Exploited Youth and Indian Child Welfare Act cases, including: traditional child protection, long term foster care, educational neglect, runaway, sexually exploited youth, Rule 20 incompetent delinquent, and truancy cases. Judge Cork worked with Indian tribes and communities in an attempt to assure that families and children were able to obtain culturally appropriate education and services.

Judge Cork is an adjunct professor at The University of Minnesota School of Law teaching Law and Policy of Human Trafficking and at St. Thomas School of Law teaching Child Abuse and the Law. She further educates through local, state, national and international presentations to judges, attorneys, law enforcement, human services, advocates, public health workers and medical personnel regarding human trafficking. Judge Cork received her juris doctor in 1998 from Hamline University School of Law with concentration in criminal law and has a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice. Prior to law school she worked as a law enforcement officer, a correctional officer, a group home counselor and a 911 dispatcher.