2007
William H. Rehnquist
Award for Judicial Excellence
The
Honorable Christine M. Durham
Chief
Justice
Supreme Court of Utah
Utah Supreme Court Chief
Justice Christine M. Durham has been named recipient of the 2007 William H.
Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence by the National Center for State
Courts.
Chief
Justice Christine Durham has been on the Utah Supreme Court since 1982,
after serving as a trial judge for four years, one of them as presiding
judge of the Third Judicial District Court. She became chief justice in
April 2002.
In their nomination letter,
Utah State Court Administrator Daniel J. Becker and Director of the Utah
Judicial Institute, Diane Cowdrey, wrote of Chief Justice Durham:
Judicial education in the 1980s was hardly a “system,” but
rather, sporadic programming at the national level by a few organizations
and judicial conferences or colleges in a few states. There was little
interest or funding, and even less understanding about the profession of
adult education and how it could benefit the practice of judicial education.
Christine Durham was the major force which changed this landscape.
In
the 1980s, Chief Justice Durham helped craft a Rule of Judicial Education
for Utah's courts that today is still one of the most progressive and
comprehensive approaches to judicial branch education. She became the first
chair of the Utah Judicial Council’s Education Committee and the first
chair of the courts’ Public Outreach Committee. She leads the
Coalition for Civic, Character, and Service Learning, a partnership between
civic organizations, public education, the judicial branch, and the legal
profession to improve education about the justice system in Utah public
schools.
Her influence extends beyond
Utah, however. Chief Justice Durham has served as president of the National
Association of Women Judges, of which she was a founding member, and Women
Judges’ Fund for Justice. She has also served on the board of directors of
the American Judicature Society and the Council of the American Law
Institute, and she was recently named to the board of the National Center
for State Courts. Each of these organizations holds judicial education as a
critical part of its mission, and Chief Justice Durham has worked to further
the mission in many ways. In 1989, the State Justice Institute commissioned
a judicial education study panel whose work led to the creation of the
Leadership Institute in Judicial Education, now located at the University of
Memphis. Chief Justice Durham’s contributions helped move judicial
branch education to the forefront of SJI’s and the Leadership Institute's
missions.
Chief Justice Durham received
her A.B. with honors from Wellesley College and a J.D. from Duke University,
where she is a member of the board of trustees. She has
received many honors for her work, including an Honorary Doctor of Laws from
University of Utah, Appellate Judge of the Year from the Utah State Bar, and
the Distinguished Service Award from the National Center for State Courts.
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