Judge Harrington is a retired South Carolina Circuit Court Judge, serving two terms on the State’s General Jurisdiction bench. Judge Harrington became the youngest Circuit Court judge and one of only six female circuit judges in the state of South Carolina on February 6, 2008, when she was unanimously elected by the state legislature. During her tenure on the bench, she tried to verdict over 250 jury trials and completed numerous non-jury criminal and civil matters. Representative cases include medical malpractice, construction defect, wrongful termination, and personal injury.
Kristi is a member of the American Health Law Association, is on the American Arbitration Association’s Judicial Panel, and has been an active arbitrator since 2018. She is a certified Supreme Court mediator and arbitrator, owning her own Alternative Dispute Resolution practice, Kristi Harrington Dispute Resolution. She has successfully arbitrated over 100 matters. She is a member of the American Bar Association, Oklahoma Bar Association, South Carolina Bar Association, Berkeley County Bar Association, Charleston County Bar Association, and Beverly Hills Bar Association. She is an American Bar Fellow, a Board Member of Mediators Beyond Borders International, a member of Arbitral Women, and a member of Women In Dispute Resolution
Judge Harrington grew up in Charleston, South Carolina. Judge Harrington received her undergraduate degree from Francis Marion University in Florence, South Carolina, with a B.A. in English. She then obtained her law degree from the University of Tulsa, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. During law school, Judge Harrington was employed by the Tulsa County District Attorney's Office where she began prosecuting juvenile and adult felony cases with a limited license to practice law. Upon graduation, she remained in the Office of the District Attorney, where she implemented a Domestic Violence Court. She was appointed to the Governor Task Force on Violence Against Women as the sole circuit judge, working to reduce the number of assaults and deaths of women in the state. She also served on the Common Pleas Docket Reform Committee and was part of the McArthur Foundation grant to reduce incarceration rates.
Judge Harrington has taught locally, statewide, nationally, and internationally. She has presented statewide on such topics as best practices in mediation and child sexual assault prosecution. Judge Harrington is a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Charleston School of Law where she teaches a variety of classes, such as Advanced Evidence, Criminal Procedure, Trial Advocacy, Alternatives to Incarceration, Cannabis Law and Policy and Negotiation.
