Judge Brandon Mack was born in Grand Junction, Colorado and spent his adolescent years in Portland, Maine. After graduating from the University of Vermont with a BS in Wildlife Biology, he spent his 20’s working in outdoor education at North Carolina Outward Bound School and the National Outdoor Leadership School teaching youth and adults about teamwork and group facilitation, compassion, and wilderness adventure.
In 2005 Mack and his partner Erica Nixon Mack (now a physical therapist with Discovery Physical Therapy in Port Hadlock) moved to Seattle where he joined AmeriCorps as a volunteer at the Seattle Y working with youth aging out of foster care. In 2006 he began law school at Seattle University’s evening program, while being a stay-at-home father during the day. During law school he interned at the Washington State Attorney General’s Office (AGO) focusing on child welfare law, as well as complex litigation. He also interned with the King County public defense agency Associated Counsel for the Accused.
In 2009, Mack was hired by the Washington AGO where he worked for 9 years representing the Department of Children, Youth and Families, as well as other state agencies. During his years with the AGO, and before working remotely was a thing, he was stationed out of the Olympia, Tacoma, Seattle, and Port Angeles offices. He also volunteered with the Northwest Immigrant Right’s Project where he represented asylum applicants.
From 2019 through 2022, Mack was the family court commissioner for Clallam County superior court. In this role he presided over cases involving all things family related: adoptions; guardianships; custody and divorces; protection orders; and truancies; as well as the family treatment court. As the court commissioner, Mack worked in partnership with local Tribes and other stakeholder to develop an Indian Child Welfare Act Court and an Infant/Toddler Court. This work by the Clallam County Dependency Court Improvement Team (CIT) received the Innovating Justice Award given by the Board for Judicial Administration including Chief Justice González of Washington’s Supreme Court.
At the end of 2022 Governor Inslee appointed Mack to replace the retiring Honorable Judge Keith Harper who has served in that role since 2012. He begins on February 1, 2023.