Karla Gray
From Judgepedia
Karla M. Gray is the Chief Justice of the Montana Supreme Court. She is the eighteenth person to serve as the court's chief justice, and the first woman to be elected to the position. She is retiring from her position at the end of 2008, having said earlier in the year, "I have not been able to persuade myself that I can serve another full, eight-year term with the same energy and dedication I have poured into being chief justice from the moment I took office."[1]
Legal education and experience
Gray attended Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan from 1965-1970, receiving a B.A. and an M.A., the latter in African History. Gray worked as a clerk-matron in the Mountain View (California) Police Department prior to attending Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco where she served as an articles editor of the Hastings Law Review. She received her J.D. degree in 1976 and moved to Butte, Montana, to serve as a law clerk for Senior United States District Court Judge W.D. Murray until 1977.
Gray continued to practice law in Butte in a number of different capacities, including in-house corporate legal staff and a solo practice. She also lobbied at the Montana Legislature during the 1980s for various entities including the Montana Power Company and the Montana Trial Lawyers Association.[2]
Gov. Stan Stephens appointed Gray as an associate justice of the Montana Supreme Court in 1991, following the resignation of Diane Barz. Barz had been the first woman to serve on the court; Gray then became the second. Gray won election as an Associate Justice in 1992 and again in 1998. She subsequently became the first woman to be elected Chief Justice in 2000, defeating fellow sitting Justice Terry Trieweiler by 8,800 votes out of approximately 387,000 cast.[3]
Associations
- Board of Directors of the Conference of Chief Justices
- American Judicature Society
- Fellow of the American Bar Foundation
- National Association of Women Judges
External links
References
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