TOPEKA—The names of three Lawrence attorneys were submitted to Gov. Mark Parkinson today as nominees to succeed Douglas County District Judge Jean F. Shepherd, who is retiring effective January 10 following 27 years service as a judge in Lawrence.
Nominated to succeed her are Barbara K. Huff, a Lawrence attorney in practice; James R. McCabria, a Douglas County Assistant District Attorney; and Angela M. Wilson, a Deputy Attorney General.
The three were nominated following a day and a half of interviews Monday and Tuesday by the Douglas County Judicial Nominating Commission, a seven-member panel of three lawyers and three non-lawyers that is chaired by Justice Eric S. Rosen, who is a non-voting commission member and Departmental Justice for the 7th Judicial District.
Gov. Parkinson will have 30 days in which to select one of the three for appointment. A total of 13 attorneys submitted applications for the position.
Huff has been a solo law practitioner in Lawrence since 1991 and taught part-time at the Kansas University School of Law between 1992 and 1997 as a clinical professor. Before entering private practice, she served as a public defender in Olathe and as a Legal Aid Society Criminal Appeals Bureau attorney in New York from September 1985—to November 1988. She began her legal career as an attorney with the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Central Staff in San Francisco in 1982.
Huff received a BA degree from Reed College in Portland, Oregon, in 1979 and a JD degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School, Philadelphia in 1982.
McCabria has been an assistant district attorney since 2006. Before that, he was an assistant Attorney General from 2001—2006, which followed private practice that began in 1994 upon his graduation from the Tulsa University School of Law that year. He is a 1991 graduate of Ohio State University with a degree in criminal science.
Wilson has been an Assistant Attorney General since 2008, and before that served 10 years as an Assistant Douglas County Attorney. She began her legal career in private practice with a Topeka law firm upon her graduation from the KU law school in 1997. She then served a year as a member of the Kansas Court of Appeals Central Staff before joining the Douglas County District Attorney’s office in 1998.
In addition to her law degree, Wilson has a BA in psychology and communication from Pittsburg State University.