Ellen Garrison Jones '79
Serving the Young, Poor, and Voiceless
by Kate Abu-Absi | October 9, 2025
Ellen Garrison Jones ’79 is a retired attorney who spent her career protecting the most vulnerable members of our society, children. She has served as a probation counselor and Chief Referee (Magistrate) in Lucas County Juvenile Court and as Director of Quality Assurance and Executive Director of Lucas County Children Services. Her advocacy extends beyond her professional life, including her previous roles as Guardian for adult wards and as a foster mother. As a past Team Leader for local Black Catholic Ministry, she continues to actively support its mission and is an active member of her parish, St. Martin de Porres. Next week she will be celebrating her 77th birthday.
Ellen grew up in Belton, South Carolina, during the Jim Crow era and spent her formative years in an environment determined to segregate and oppress Black people. As the oldest of six kids, she had to navigate a world that didn’t value Black people and was especially dangerous for Black boys like her four brothers. Her family’s commitment to education served as a counterbalance for a system that did not provide Black schools with adequate resources, and the love they shared helped protect them from a world resolved on making them feel inferior.
After graduating from high school, Ellen accepted her aunt’s invitation to come to Toledo and pursue her undergraduate degree at Mary Manse College. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree with an emphasis on sociology and psychology. She was grandfathered as a licensed social worker in the State of Ohio and entered the workforce as a Probation Counselor in the Lucas County Juvenile Court. There, she saw firsthand the disparity between the children whose families could afford an attorney and those who had court-appointed counsel, which was the catalyst for embarking on a career in law.
Toledo Law proved to be a challenging but supportive environment. Entering a field of study that was dominated by white men was a new experience, but she met and made friends. Between night school and attending full-time, Ellen graduated in 1979 and was offered a job in the same court she had served as Probation Counselor. This time as a licensed attorney.
Her career was long and varied, but always focused on a population relegated to the fringes of society. The young, poor, and voiceless. She describes herself as a person with a servant’s heart, and I can’t think of a more accurate appraisal. She has harnessed every indignity and fought back with her mind and her strength and her servant’s heart.
Q&A with Ellen Garrison Jones
Where did you grow up?
I was born in Belton, South Carolina, where I lived until moving to Toledo at 18 to
attend Mary Manse College, an all-women’s Catholic school.
When did you begin thinking about law as a career?
After graduating from college, I was hired as a probation counselor at Lucas County
Juvenile Court. I was concerned about the lack of attention some court-appointed counsel
gave children whose families could not afford to hire an attorney. I kept thinking
that I could do a better job, and I was overheard by a juvenile court prosecutor voicing
that opinion under my breath. She immediately said, “Yes, you could. Have you thought
about going to law school?” I had not given it serious thought. Her encouragement
led me to consider it, and I first shared the idea with my husband. He encouraged
me to look into it. I took the LSAT and applied to UT College of Law for night classes
in 1975.
If you are a first-generation college or law student, did it have any impact on your
experience in law school or in your career?
My family has many teachers, starting with my paternal grandfather, who worked as
a house painter, a farmer, and a teacher. He taught in a one-room school for children
and was called Professor Garrison. He and my grandmother raised 11 children; all 4
of his daughters became teachers, and two of his sons also graduated from college.
I am the first attorney in the family.
What did you find difficult about your time in law school?
I began law school with night classes while working full-time as a probation counselor
and trying to balance caring for our daughter and keeping up our home. The class reading
assignments were a bear. I love to read, and I love to learn, but it was too much
for me. My husband, Art Jones, is the real hero of this part of my story. I decided
to drop out of law school until I could quit my job. My husband supported this, and
when I went back to law school, he handled the full financial responsibility for our
family; he handled most of the chores to maintain our home and a lot of the care for
our daughter.
What was your first position after law school? How did you find it?
When I left juvenile court to attend law school full-time, the court’s chief referee
offered me a job as a referee (now called a magistrate) once I completed law school,
but I had to pass the bar exam on my first try to keep the job (no pressure, right?).
I counter-offered to wait until I took the bar to start as a referee because I wanted
to properly prepare for the bar exam. He accepted my counteroffer, and the week after
I returned from the bar exam, I started working as an LC Juvenile Court referee. Thankfully,
I passed the bar on my first try and worked for 4 years as a referee until taking
a job at LC Children Services as Director of Quality Assurance.
What are some of your career highlights?
I worked for Lucas County for 30 years, retiring in 2005. I started in undergrad with
an interest in social work before getting bitten by the “legal bug”. But in the end,
I used my law degree in each of my jobs to approach my responsibilities with a focus
on social work. As a referee I wanted to hear not only the facts of the case before
the court but also the “why” of the situation that brought children through the court
in delinquency cases but determining the “why” behind parental neglect and abuse can
sometimes affect the outcome in child custody cases as well as termination of parental
rights in child abuse and or neglect cases. The highlight in my first job at LS Children
Services in quality assurance, then later as its Executive Director, was very difficult
as staff were making life and death recommendations daily. My eight years with the
LC Mental Health & Recovery Services Board threw me squarely into the realm of social
work, but I used my legal skills in my duties as the system’s client rights officer,
requiring investigations and sometimes conducting hearings and producing reports with
recommendations to correct the problem the client brought to the Board. I also participated
in drafting contracts between the Board and the mental health and our recovery services
agencies. I say this to highlight that one can use their law degree in many fields.
During the 8 years before my retirement from LC and 5 or 6 years after that, I had
a solo practice with an emphasis on Probate Law. My servant’s heart led me to take
on several Pro Bono cases. Two young women whose mother died too young left a home,
and the oldest, a 20-something, was trying to take care of her sister, hold down a
job, and go to school. She drove a car with no driver’s side window and a door that
she had to tie shut to close. She had no money for legal fees. Any attorney worth
their salt would have taken this case pro bono. It was the right thing to do.
What do you enjoy doing outside of work?
I loved traveling with my husband or friends before I became partially paralyzed with
an autoimmune disease, for which no medicine or therapy has removed the inflammation
from my spine. I loved walking, going to the gym, and water aerobics. These are no
longer feasible for me, but I continue to volunteer for my church. I have volunteered
most of my adult life serving on several boards with an interest in children. My most
rewarding volunteer experience has been serving on my Parish RCIA (Now known as OCIA
) Team, which helps adults discern if they want to become Catholic. I am grateful
that my physical limitations have not kept me from accompanying many adults on their
journey to discern if they want to be baptized or confirmed if they have not had that
sacrament. My volunteer work with the now-closed Lutheran Social Services Guardianship
program also brought me much joy. I only got to work with 2 gentlemen who lived in
nursing homes before the program closed, but they really touched our hearts. I say
“our” because, as usual, my husband of 55 years accompanied me on all the visits,
calling for me to take my ward to a store where he loved to buy arts and craft material
for his artwork. I also loved doing personal care for a dear friend with cerebral
palsy. She may be the brightest, most accomplished person I know. It was an honor
taking her to meetings across the state of Ohio, Washington DC, Illinois, and Texas
where she commanded the room and made herself heard in every setting she addressed.
Serving others is a great gift.