TOPEKA—The Supreme Court Nominating Commission today nominated three persons to fill a vacancy on the Court of Appeals that was created by the death Sept. 1 of Judge M. Kay Royse.
Carol G. Green, clerk of the Supreme Court, delivered the names of Carol Ann Beier, Wichita; Lee Alan Johnson, Caldwell; and Dana Pogue Niceswanger, Lenexa, to the office of Gov. Bill Graves earlier today. The governor has 60 days in which to make an appointment.
The nominees were selected from a field of 25 persons who applied for the vacancy. Interviews of suggested nominees were conducted by the nine member Nominating Commission Monday and Tuesday.
Beier, 41, received her law degree from the University of Kansas School of Law in 1985, where she was Articles Editor for the Kansas Law Review. She received her undergraduate degree in journalism from KU in 1981. She has been in the private practice of law with the Wichita firm of Foulston & Siefken since 1988. She became a partner in that firm in 1993.
Prior to joining the Wichita law firm, Beier served a year as a law clerk for the Hon. James K. Logan, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, and then spent a year as a staff attorney at the National Women's Law Center in Washington D.C.
Johnson, 52, is a 1979 graduate of the Washburn University School of Law and received a BS degree in business administration from the University of Kansas in 1969. He has been in private practice in Caldwell since his admission to the bar in 1980. He served as mayor of the City of Caldwell from 1976 to 1977 and has been city attorney for both Caldwell and Argonia.
Niceswanger, 40, is a 1985 graduate of the Washburn University School of Law and a 1980 graduate of Stephens College, Columbia, MO. She was an associate attorney in the Salina firm of Clark Mize & Linville, Chtd., from 1985 to 1990 and served the firm as a shareholder from 1990 to 1995. She became a sole practitioner in Salina from 1995-1997 and then joined the Overland Park firm of McDowell, Rice, Smith & Garr, P.C., where she currently practices.