Supreme Court, Appeals Court Name New Chiefs

The June announcement is intended to allow the incoming leaders to work alongside the retiring chiefs during the transition.

By STAFF

Summer 2013

The state’s top two courts have named replacements for their outgoing chiefs months before their retirement in an effort to ease the leadership transition.

Colorado Supreme Court Justice Nancy E. Rice will serve as Chief Justice-designate alongside Chief Justice Michael L. Bender until he retires in January. Colorado Court of Appeals Judge Alan Loeb was appointed Chief Judge-designate to serve alongside Chief Judge Janice B. Davidson until she retires in October.

“These transitional periods will help the new chiefs learn the ins and outs of the many and varied administrative duties of the positions,” Bender said in June when the announcements were made.

Before being appointed to the high court in 1998, Rice served as a district court judge in the Second Judicial District. Prior to taking the bench, she worked as an assistant U.S. attorney and briefly as a deputy state public defender. Rice earned her bachelor’s degree from Tufts University in 1972 and her law degree from the University of Utah in 1975.

She was selected by the other six members of the Colorado Supreme Court to replace Bender who will retire on his 72^nd birthday in January, as required by the state’s constitution. Bender was appointed to the Supreme Court in 1997 and in 1999 was instrumental in implementing a new attorney discipline system that is more efficient for complainants and more educational for attorneys. Colorado’s system has become the model for numerous states since that time. He also was at the center of efforts to construct the new Ralph L. Carr Judicial Center in downtown Denver.

Loeb joined the appeal’s court in 2003 after 32 years at firm Davis Graham & Stubbs. He earned his undergraduate degree from Stanford University in 1968 and his law degree from the University of Michigan in 1971.

He was appointed by Bender to take over for Davidson who will retire Oct. 1. Davidson was appointed to the appeals court in 1988. She was an integral member of the team that pushed for the new judicial center and helped conceptualize the interactive learning center on the courthouse’s ground floor.