TOPEKA—The names of three persons were submitted to Gov. Bill Graves today as nominees to fill the vacancy on the Court of Appeals that will be created by the retirement of Chief Judge J. Patrick Brazil on January 8th.
Nominated to serve as a member of the Court of Appeals are: Chief Judge Stephen D. Hill, 49, Paola, and attorneys Lee Alan Johnson, 53, Caldwell; and Lawton M. Nuss 47, Salina. The governor will have 60 days in which to make an appointment from the list.
The Supreme Court Nominating Commission, consisting of four non-lawyers and four lawyers representing each of the state's four congressional districts plus a lawyer member elected statewide to serve as chair, met in Topeka Monday and Tuesday to interview suggested nominees for the vacancy.
Judge Hill has been a district judge of the 6th Judicial District (consisting of Miami, Linn and Bourbon counties) since 1981. He was appointed by the Supreme Court as administrative judge of the district in 1990 and remains in that capacity today, although the position has since been renamed chief judge.
A 1975 graduate of the Washburn University School of Law, Judge Hill began his law practice in Mound City and served as assistant Miami County Attorney in Paola. He was appointed Linn County Attorney and then elected to the post in 1976.
Johnson has practiced law in Caldwell in Sumner County since 1980, where he became a general partner in the firm of Stallings & Johnson until May 1987 when his partner retired. He is currently a sole practitioner. A 1979 graduate of the Washburn Law School, he served as its placement officer for one year and then entered private practice. He served as mayor of the City of Caldwell from 1976-1977, and has been a judge pro tem in Welington Municipal Court and Sumner County District Court.
Nuss joined the Salina firm of Clark, Mize & Linville, Chartered, Salina, upon his graduation from the University of Kansas School of Law in 1982. He was named a shareholder and vice president of the firm in 1988, and has remained with the firm since then. In 1977 and 1978, after two years as a combat engineering officer, he served as a legal officer in the U.S. Marine Corps, where he handled courts-martial, administrative discharge hearings and hearings under Article 15 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. He is currently chair of the Board of Editors of the Journal of the Kansas Bar Association.
Members of the Supreme Court Nominating Commission include Lynn R. Johnson, chair, Overland Park; Lowell F. Hahn, Phillipsburg; Debbie L. Nordling, Hugoton; Thomas E. Wright and James S. Maag, both of Topeka; Thomas L. Bath Jr. and Suzanne S. Bond, both of Overland Park; M. Kathryn Webb, Wichita, and Dennis L. Greenhaw, Independence, KS.