Today Gov. Jay Inslee announced the appointment of Mark Larrañaga to the King County Superior Court. He will replace Judge Steve Rosen, who has announced plans to leave the bench later this month.

Larrañaga is a career criminal defense attorney, with roughly three decades of courtroom and trial experience. In 2005, he co-founded Walsh & Larrañaga, a Seattle-based law firm focused on criminal defense, civil rights, and personal injury work. From 2001 to 2004, Larrañaga was director of Washington state’s Death Penalty Assistance Center, where he trained and assisted attorneys handling capital punishment cases. He began his career as a public defender in 1993.

Larrañaga is also involved in his community. He has volunteered as a youth baseball coach, and regularly judges high school mock trial competitions. From 2005 to 2018, Larrañaga taught death penalty jurisprudence as an adjunct professor at Seattle University School of Law.

“Mark brings such a wealth of trial experience to the bench,” said Inslee. “He understands his way around a courtroom. He will make a great trial judge at the King County Superior Court.”

Larrañaga earned his bachelor’s degree at San Diego State University. He earned his law degree from Gonzaga University School of Law.