Judge Linda W.Y. Coburn

Judge Linda W.Y. Coburn was elected to the Washington State Court of Appeals in November 2020 after 15 years at the trial court level either as a career public defender or a judge. She has been a member of the Washington State Supreme Court's Minority and Justice Commission (MJC) since 2015, the same year she took the bench in Edmonds Municipal Court. She also served on the governing board of the District and Municipal Court Judges Association (DMCJA) from 2016 to 2020.

She led the effort in the creation of the Legal Financial Obligations Calculator as part of a Price of Justice Grant received by the MJC and has taught or presented on the topic of LFOs across the state and nationally. As a member of the DMCJA Diversity Committee, she regularly presented at the biennial pro tempore training event co-sponsored by the Washington State Bar Association. She also has served on the faculty of Judicial College in 2019-2020 and was a frequent presenter at statewide judicial conferences. She also served on the MJC's Jury Diversity Task Force and the state Pretrial Reform Task Force. Judge Coburn most recently served on the state Supreme Court's Gender and Justice Commission's Study Advisory Committee. In 2018, she received the Asian Bar Association of Washington Judge of the Year Award.

Prior to becoming a judge, she was a career public defender. She previously clerked at Division One for the Honorable Stephen J. Dwyer and at Snohomish County Superior Court for the Honorable George N. Bowden. Judge Coburn spent 13 years prior to her legal career as a journalist. She graduated cum laude from Seattle University School of Law in 2005. She holds a bachelor's degree in communications from the University of Washington and a master's of science degree in journalism from Ohio University. She is an alum of the Radcliffe Publishing Procedures Course at Harvard University.

Judge Coburn and her husband live in Edmonds where they raised two boys. She can be spotted throughout Snohomish County on occasion umpiring a Little League game or officiating a high school volleyball match.