Hon. G. Helen Whitener is a justice of the Washington Supreme Court. She was appointed to the Supreme Court by Governor Jay Inslee in April 2020 and was retained to the seat in the subsequent election later that same year. She filled the vacancy created by the retirement of the Hon. Charles Wiggins (Ret.).
Prior to her elevation to Washington’s highest court, Whitener had served as a judge for the Pierce County Superior Court since receiving an appointment to the position by Governor Inslee in 2015. She first began her judicial career as a judge for the Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals in 2013 and held that position until joining the Superior Court bench two years later. Whitener also served as a pro tem judge in the Pierce County District Court and the City of Tacoma Municipal Court.
Whitener holds the distinction of being the first black LGBTQ judge in Washington and the first black woman to serve on the Washington Supreme Court.
She received a B.A. in business administration and international marketing from Baruch College in 1988. Whitener then completed a J.D. at Seattle University School of Law in 1998.
After law school, she held positions as a prosecutor, public defender, and private practice attorney. These included serving as an assistant prosecuting attorney for the City of Olympia (1999 to 2000), a deputy prosecuting attorney with the Island County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office (2000 to 2001), an attorney with the Pierce County Department of Assigned Counsel (2001 to 2003), a deputy prosecuting attorney with the Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office (2003 to 2005), and a managing partner at Whitener Rainey Writt PS (2005 to 2013). Whitener remained in practice with the firm until joining the Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals in 2013.
She served as co-chair of the Washington State Minority and Justice Commission and as a member of the Civil Legal Aid Oversight Committee. In addition, Whitener was chair of Washington’s Annual Judicial Conference Planning Committee and the Washington State Superior Court Judges’ Association Equality and Fairness Committee.
Whitener has also held memberships with the International Association of Women Judges, the International Association of LGBTQ+ Judges (Board of Directors), the National Association of Women Judges, and the Advisory Council of the QLaw Association of Washington.
In 2021, she was named Public Official of the Year by The Evergreen State College’s Master of Public Administration Program and received the Judge of the Year Award from the Western Region of the National Black Law Students Association.
Some of her other accolades have included the 2020 Distinguished 400 Awardee from the 400 Years of African American History Commission, the Chief Justice Mary Fairhurst Passing the Torch Award from the Washington Women Lawyers (2020), the President’s Award from the International Association of LGBTQ+ Judges (2020), the Charles Z. Smith Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion Award from the Washington State Bar Association (2019), the President’s Award from the King County Washington Women Lawyers (2019), the Service to Diversity Award from the Tacoma-Pierce County Bar Association (2019), and the Woman of the Year Award from the Seattle University School of Law and Women’s Law Caucus (2019) and the Pierce County Washington Women Lawyers (2018).
Whitener, who was born and raised in Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean, came to the United States to attend college. At the time of her appointment to the Supreme Court, she resided in Pierce County with her wife, Lynn Rainey, who is also an attorney.