Probate Court
Judges
Honorable David M. Murkowski, Chief Probate Judge
(616) 632-5428
Judge David M. Murkowski was born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Judge Murkowski graduated from Marquette University High School in 1975, where he was elected senior class president. In 1979, he graduated cum laude from Marquette University where he was awarded the University's Outstanding Student Service Award and the Polanki College Achievement Scholarship. In 1979, Judge Murkowski was also inducted into the National Jesuit Honor Society. He attended Western Michigan University's Thomas M. Cooley Law School and was an honor roll graduate in 1983.
Judge Murkowski served as law clerk to the Michigan House of Representatives Civil Rights Committee, and worked as a solo practitioner in Grand Rapids until 1993 when he joined the law firm of Dilley & Dilley. There, he specialized in criminal defense, juvenile neglect and delinquency, and probate law. He served as managing partner of Dilley, Dilley, Murkowski & Goller until 2006, when he was appointed to the Kent County Probate bench to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of the Honorable Janet A. Haynes.
In December 2007, the Michigan Supreme Court appointed Judge Murkowski to serve as the Chief Judge of the Kent County Probate Court, commencing January 1, 2008. Judge Murkowski served as President of the Michigan Probate Judges Association (MPJA) in 2017. He served 6 years as Council Member of the Probate and Estate Planning Section of the State Bar of Michigan and served as a member and judicial representative of the Michigan Trust Code Committee, the body tasked with the drafting and enactment of the 2010 Michigan Trust Code. Through Judicial Council, he also initiated the complete restructuring of the appellate process for probate appeals. Judge Murkowski has also served as a member of the Governor's Mental Health Task Force Subcommittee on Legislation, and as a member of the Executive Committee of the Kent County Family and Children's Coordinating Council. Currently, Judge Murkowski serves as Chair of the Judicial Council of the Judicial Section of the State Bar of Michigan and as Adjunct Assistant Professor in the College of Human Medicine at Michigan State University. Judge Murkowski has lectured for the Michigan Judicial Institute (MJI), ICLE's Probate and Estate Planning Institute, the American Geriatric Society (AGS), the Michigan Probate Judges Association (MPJA), the Western Michigan Estate Planning Council, and the Grand Rapids Bar Association, and provides semi-annual Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) for law enforcement agencies throughout Kent County.
Recently, Judge Murkowski was invited by the Institute for Continuing Legal Education (ICLE) and the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) to assist in the development of jurisdiction-specific (Michigan) probate content for use with the Uniform Bar Examination (UBE). Judge Murkowski is also a chapter author of Michigan Probate Litigation: A Guide to Contested Litigation, 2nd Ed., a contributor to the Michigan Probate Benchbook, and an associate editor of Inter-Com, a publication of the Michigan Probate Judges Association.
Judge Murkowski has received the Judicial Contributions in Law and Aging Award by Elder Law of Michigan, has been selected as a Leader in the Law by Michigan Lawyers Weekly, and was elected as a Fellow of the Michigan State Bar Foundation.
Honorable Avery D. Rose, Probate Judge
(616) 632-5421
Judge Avery D. Rose took the bench on January 1, 2023. He was raised in Coldwater, Michigan, and earned his Bachelor's degree in International Relations from Michigan State University, where he had the opportunity to study international security and comparative systems of governance in Istanbul, Turkey and Brussels, Belgium. Judge Rose earned his Juris Doctorate from Wayne State University Law School and obtained a Master of Library and Information Science degree from Wayne State University.
Following his graduation from law school Judge Rose served as a law clerk at the 48th Circuit Court, in Allegan County. In 2015 Judge Rose was named as the Probate Register at the Allegan County Probate Court, where he also served as an Attorney/Referee. During his tenure in Allegan County, Judge Rose also served as the President of the Allegan County Bar Association, participated in the Allegan County Community Corrections Advisory Board, served as board member for the Allegan County Legal Assistance Center and represented the 48th Circuit as a Representative on the Representative Assembly of the State Bar of Michigan.
In 2019 Judge Rose was appointed by the Chief Probate Judge David M. Murkowski to serve as the Probate Register for Kent County, where he oversaw the administration of the Probate Court and the Kent County Guardianship Program. Judge Rose has been invited to speak on probate-related issues at the Michigan Judicial Institute, the Michigan Probate Registers and Juvenile Registers Association annual conference, The Institute of Continuing Legal Education, and to several other community organizations.