TOPEKA—The names of three persons were submitted to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius today to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court that will be created by the January 12 retirement of Chief Justice Kay McFarland.
The nominees are Overland Park attorney Dan Biles, Douglas County Chief Judge Robert W. Fairchild and Court of Appeals Judge Tom Malone. Governor Sebelius will have 60 days in which to fill the high court vacancy.
Pursuant to Kansas law, Chief Justice McFarland is retiring at the end of her current six-year-term on the Court, where she has been a member since 1977. The new member of the Court will serve as a justice, and Robert E. Davis will become chief justice as the next most senior member. Chief Justice McFarland has been chief justice since September 1, 1995.
Biles, who has been admitted to practice for 28 years, has been a member of the Overland Park law firm of Gates, Biles, Shields & Ryan, P.A., since 1985. His practice has included representing the State Board of Education since 1985, and as general counsel for the Kansas Turnpike Authority since 2005.
While in law school at Washburn University, Biles worked as a reporter for the Associated Press and covered the Kansas Legislature, Supreme Court, Governor’s Office and state agencies, as well as political campaigns. He became an assistant attorney general in 1980, where he served in the litigation division until joining the Gates & Clyde Chartered law firm, the predecessor to the current firm, in 1985.
Chief Judge Fairchild has been a Douglas County district judge since 1996 and has been chief judge since 2002. Prior to his appointment to the bench, he was in general practice for 23 years, beginning in 1973 when he was employed by Norwood, King & Fairchild in Lawrence, first as an associate attorney and then as a partner. In 1978, the firm merged with another firm to form Riling, Burkhead, Fairchild & Nitcher, Chtd., in Lawrence. He remained with that law firm until his appointment as district judge.
As a district judge, he has been appointed to serve as a Court of Appeals judge three times and has presided over numerous civil and criminal trials, including the five-week jury trial of Thomas E. Murray, a former university professor who was convicted in 2005 of bludgeoning his estranged wife to death.
Judge Malone has been a member of the Court of Appeals since 2003. Before that, he served as a Sedgwick County District Court judge from 1991 until his Court of Appeals appointment. He was in private practice in Wichita with the firm of Redmond & Nazar from 1979 to December 1990, when he was appointed to the district court bench.
As a Court of Appeals judge, he has heard more than 1,500 appeals and written over 500 decisions. As a Sedgwick County district judge, he served in the civil, criminal, family law, juvenile and probate departments, presiding over more than 250 jury trials and hundreds of trials without a jury.