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Patricia O'Brien Cotter is a retired Montana Supreme Court Associate Justice who served from 2001-2017. Originally from South Bend, Indiana, she graduated with honors in 1972 from Western Michigan University with a bachelors’ degree in Political Science and History. Justice Cotter's law degree is from the Notre Dame Law School in 1977.

Justice Cotter practiced law for six years in South Bend, after which she and her husband Michael Cotter moved to Montana. She practiced law in Great Falls, Montana with John Hoyt beginning in 1984. She and her husband established the firm of Cotter and Cotter in 1985.

She first ran for a position on the Montana Supreme Court in 2000 when Justice William E. Hunt retired. She was first in a four-way primary, then won the general election on November 7, 2000 with 55% of the vote. She ran unopposed for re-election in 2008.

She is admitted to practice before the Fort Peck Tribal Court of Appeals, the Eighth and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeals, the United States Court of Claims, and the United States Supreme Court.