Durkan, Jenny, 1958-

Jenny Anne Durkan (born May 19, 1958) is an American attorney, former federal prosecutor, and politician serving as the 56th mayor of Seattle, Washington. She is the city's first female mayor since the 1920s and its second openly LGBT elected mayor.

Born in Seattle, Durkan was raised on Mercer Island, Washington and in Bellevue, Washington. After graduating from Forest Ridge School of the Sacred Heart, she earned her B.A. degree from the University of Notre Dame. After graduating, Durkan spent two years in Alaska, teaching high-school English and coaching a girls' basketball team in the Yup’ik Eskimo community through the Jesuit Volunteer Corps. After a summer working as a baggage handler for Wien Air Alaska in St. Mary’s, Alaska as a dues-paying Teamster, Durkan enrolled in the University of Washington School of Law, earning her J.D. degree in 1985. While in law school, Durkan participated in a pilot criminal defense clinic, working with the public defender's office to represent individuals charged in Seattle municipal court. She continued the work on a pro bono basis, until she moved to Washington, D.C. to practice law with the firm of Williams & Connolly. Durkan returned to Seattle in 1991, and established a successful practice focusing on criminal defense and work on behalf of plaintiffs.

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