Lillian Burke, the granddaughter of a slave, was the first African-American woman to serve on the Ohio judiciary. Following her graduation from CSU College of Law, she sought employment as a law clerk in the city courts and was handed an application for a secretarial job. Undaunted, she practiced successfully, and later was appointed to the Ohio Industrial Commission, the highest state government position ever held by a black woman in Ohio. In 1969, she was appointed to fill a vacancy on the Cleveland Municipal Court, a bench on which she served with distinction for 18 years. In 2012, CSU|LAW awarded her an Honorary Doctor of Law.