At a campaign kickoff event September 17, Oakland County Probate Court candidate Jessica Hallmark is pictured (l-r) with attorney Jeffrey Lance Abood of the Abood Law Firm, which hosted the reception; retired Judge Linda Hallmark; and John Akouri, president of the Lebanese American Chamber of Commerce.
By Tom Kirvan
Legal News
While Jessica Hallmark only recently decided to seek a 2026 open seat on the Oakland County Probate Court, the roots of her candidacy actually can be traced to 35 years ago when she was an impressionable middle school student.
“I was 11 years old, the exact age that my daughter is now, when my mom began her first campaign for public office seeking a seat on the Michigan Court of Appeals,” Hallmark said. “My mom and I have recently reflected on that and the similarities involved in our respective decisions to seek a seat on the bench. She has been very encouraging and supportive of my candidacy, and obviously has been a role model for me since I became a lawyer.”
Her mother, Linda Hallmark, has deep judicial roots in Oakland County, serving with distinction as a Probate Court judge from 1997 to 2024 before retiring, although she currently is pulling part-time duty as a visiting judge to help with its docket.
The younger Hallmark, a University of Michigan alumna who earned her law degree from Wayne State University, is seeking a seat on the Probate Court that will be vacated by Judge Daniel A. O’Brien, who is unable to run again because of Michigan’s age limit for judicial office.
Her candidacy for the six-year seat was given a boost on September 17 when a “Meet and Greet” was hosted by the Abood Law Firm at its office in Birmingham. The well-attended event drew a number of current and former members of the county and state benches, whose presence proved heartening to the first-time candidate.
“I’m very grateful to all those who attended and to everyone who has helped out in gathering petition signatures for me,” said Hallmark, whose late father, Robert, was a general practitioner. “I’ve received a lot of positive feedback from people I’ve met in recent weeks who have thanked me for running and for being willing to seek public office. It’s been gratifying to receive that kind of response.”
Fresh out of college in 2001, Hallmark got her first taste of public service work as an aide to U.S. Congressman Joe Knollenberg, working in his Michigan office on a variety of constituent matters. Following law school, Hallmark served as a law clerk for Oakland Circuit Judge Wendy Potts before spending seven years at a Birmingham-based boutique law firm specializing in commercial real estate and business law.
Married and the mother of two school-age children, Hallmark joined the Bloomfield Hills firm of Adkison Need Allen & Rentrop in 2017, and practices in the areas of commercial real estate, liquor licensing, and business formation and transactions.
She and her husband, Tony Albensi, celebrated their 15th wedding anniversary earlier this year, and are the parents of Jack, 13, and Kate, 11. Tony serves as an IT project manager for a company that handles contract work for the State of Michigan.
“My husband has been very supportive of my candidacy, and has really enjoyed getting out and meeting so many new people,” Hallmark said. “He’s much more of an extrovert.”
The couple, somewhat ironically, first met while working on a political campaign in 2002.
“Now we’ve come full circle,” Hallmark said with a grin.
Legal News
While Jessica Hallmark only recently decided to seek a 2026 open seat on the Oakland County Probate Court, the roots of her candidacy actually can be traced to 35 years ago when she was an impressionable middle school student.
“I was 11 years old, the exact age that my daughter is now, when my mom began her first campaign for public office seeking a seat on the Michigan Court of Appeals,” Hallmark said. “My mom and I have recently reflected on that and the similarities involved in our respective decisions to seek a seat on the bench. She has been very encouraging and supportive of my candidacy, and obviously has been a role model for me since I became a lawyer.”
Her mother, Linda Hallmark, has deep judicial roots in Oakland County, serving with distinction as a Probate Court judge from 1997 to 2024 before retiring, although she currently is pulling part-time duty as a visiting judge to help with its docket.
The younger Hallmark, a University of Michigan alumna who earned her law degree from Wayne State University, is seeking a seat on the Probate Court that will be vacated by Judge Daniel A. O’Brien, who is unable to run again because of Michigan’s age limit for judicial office.
Her candidacy for the six-year seat was given a boost on September 17 when a “Meet and Greet” was hosted by the Abood Law Firm at its office in Birmingham. The well-attended event drew a number of current and former members of the county and state benches, whose presence proved heartening to the first-time candidate.
“I’m very grateful to all those who attended and to everyone who has helped out in gathering petition signatures for me,” said Hallmark, whose late father, Robert, was a general practitioner. “I’ve received a lot of positive feedback from people I’ve met in recent weeks who have thanked me for running and for being willing to seek public office. It’s been gratifying to receive that kind of response.”
Fresh out of college in 2001, Hallmark got her first taste of public service work as an aide to U.S. Congressman Joe Knollenberg, working in his Michigan office on a variety of constituent matters. Following law school, Hallmark served as a law clerk for Oakland Circuit Judge Wendy Potts before spending seven years at a Birmingham-based boutique law firm specializing in commercial real estate and business law.
Married and the mother of two school-age children, Hallmark joined the Bloomfield Hills firm of Adkison Need Allen & Rentrop in 2017, and practices in the areas of commercial real estate, liquor licensing, and business formation and transactions.
She and her husband, Tony Albensi, celebrated their 15th wedding anniversary earlier this year, and are the parents of Jack, 13, and Kate, 11. Tony serves as an IT project manager for a company that handles contract work for the State of Michigan.
“My husband has been very supportive of my candidacy, and has really enjoyed getting out and meeting so many new people,” Hallmark said. “He’s much more of an extrovert.”
The couple, somewhat ironically, first met while working on a political campaign in 2002.
“Now we’ve come full circle,” Hallmark said with a grin.
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