After more than 15 years on the Oregon Supreme Court, Chief Justice Martha L. Walters will retire in December, at the end of a tumultuous year marked by a public feud over the state’s flagging public defense system.

The seven-member court has unanimously voted in Justice Meagan A. Flynn as Oregon’s next chief justice upon Walters’ retirement Dec. 31.

“I am grateful,” Walters said in a statement Tuesday, “grateful for the opportunities I have had to study and decide the law, and grateful for the opportunities I have had to advocate for our courts and the cause of justice they serve.”

Walters was the first woman to serve as the state’s chief justice, unanimously selected by her fellow justices in June 2018. She was first appointed to the Supreme Court by Gov. Ted Kulongoski in 2006.

Her announcement comes just a week after the ousted director of the Oregon Office of Public Defense Services, Stephen Singer, sued the state, alleging Walters unlawfully orchestrated his dismissal because he refused to use unqualified lawyers as a stopgap for the ongoing lack of public defenders.

Roughly 750 people have been charged with a crime but are not represented in court, state records show, a product of burnout, comparatively low pay and new caseload limits for the state’s court-appointed attorneys. Walters has said Singer failed to act with urgency to lessen the number of unrepresented defendants, which has dropped from a near peak of about 1,300 people since late August.

A spokesperson for the Oregon Judicial Department said Walters, who turns 72 later this month, was stepping down because she “stayed as chief justice longer than she planned” to provide stable leadership, but “now it’s time.”

The announcement comes as courthouses across the state are largely shuttered while the state’s 200 judges attend the Judicial Conference, an annual training meeting for sitting and retired judges.

Walters is retiring two years into her six-year elected term, allowing Gov. Kate Brown to pick her successor. The replacement could then run as an incumbent in the May 2024 election. Brown is already searching for a replacement for Oregon Supreme Court Justice Thomas Balmer, who also is retiring at the end of the year, as well as for Multnomah County Circuit Judge Eric Bloch.

“Chief Justice Martha Walters has been an incredible advocate for Oregonians seeking access to justice,” Brown said in a statement. “She has been collaborative and fearless.”

The new chief justice, Flynn, 55, is a former Portland civil lawyer who was appointed to the state Supreme Court by Brown in 2017. The chief justice serves as administrator of the state’s $600 million court system.