Biography
Judge Paula Francisco Ott attended the University of Delaware, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science in 1972. In 1975, she earned both her Juris Doctor and Master of Laws at the Temple University Beasley School of Law. She worked as an Assistant District Attorney for Chester County from 1975 through 1978, and then as an Assistant County Solicitor from 1978 to 1981.
Judge Ott served on the Court of Common Pleas of Chester County, becoming the first woman to be elected to that court in 1991. She then was elected President Judge in 2005, and served in that capacity through 2009. Four years later, she was elected to the Superior Court of Pennsylvania where she began her service in 2010. She retired in 2019 when she decided not to run for retention.
Judge Ott was Co-Chair of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s Advisory Council on Elder Justice in the Courts, and continues her service as an Advisor. Judge Ott currently serves as a Senior Judge in the judicial system. She also served on the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania’s Elder Law Task Force and was Co-Chair of its Guardianship Monitoring Committee. She also served for six years as a member of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court Orphans’ Court Rules Committee.