Betty Montgomery

Betty Montgomery is an attorney with the firm of MacMurray, Petersen & Shuster LLP, in Columbus, Ohio, specializing in matters before the state attorneys general, Federal Communications Commission and Federal Trade Commission. She served as Ohio's first female attorney general, for two terms (1995-2003), and Auditor of State, from 2003-07. Earlier, she was Wood County prosecutor, at that time the only female prosecutor in the state. She served as an Ohio state senator from the 2nd District from 1989-95, and prosecuting attorney for the city of Perrysburg, Ohio. As Wood County prosecutor, beginning in 1980, she directed a 250 percent increase in felony conviction rates. As state senator, she drafted legislation including Ohio's first Living Will law, brownfields legislation and Victims' Rights Law. As attorney general, she helped rebuild the state's crime labs and earn accreditation from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation. Montgomery received a bachelor's degree from BGSU in 1970 and her juris doctorate from the University of Toledo College of Law in 1976.