COLUMBUS, Ohio (Legal Newsline)- Probate Judge Eric Brown announced Tuesday he will run for chief justice of the Ohio Supreme Court.

Brown, a Democrat, is expected to run against Republican Maureen O'Connor, an Ohio Supreme Court justice, for the state's top judicial post.

Thomas Moyer, who has been the state's chief justice for 24 years, is unable to run again because of age restrictions.

Currently, Brown presides over the probate division in the Franklin County Common Pleas Court. Prior to that, he spent five years in the general division overseeing cases that varied from criminal felonies, civil disputes and served as a probate judge in a significant guardianship case.

From 2003 to 2005 Brown was a Magistrate in Columbus, where he presided over jury trials, motion hearings discovery hearing and other legal proceedings.

From 1992 to 2002, Brown an assistant state attorney general. He led tobacco litigation for the Ohio Attorney General's Office.

O'Connor was appointed Magistrate in Summit County in 1985 and served at the post until becoming a common pleas judge in 1993.

In 1995, she became Summit County's prosecuting attorney. In 1998 O'Connor was elected Ohio's lieutenant governor.

With more than 67 percent of the vote, O'Connor was reelected to the Supreme Court in 2008.