TOPEKA—The Supreme Court Nominating Commission today submitted the names of three judges to Gov. Kathleen Sebelius to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court that will be created by the January retirement of Justice Donald L. Allegrucci.
They include Court of Appeals Judges Lee A. Johnson and Tom Malone, and Douglas County District Judge Robert W. Fairchild. The governor has 60 days in which to appoint one of the three.
Judge Johnson has been a member of the Court of Appeals since 2001. Prior to his appointment to the Court of Appeals, he practiced law in Caldwell in Sumner County since 1980.
A native of Caldwell, he received a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Kansas in 1969. After serving two years on active duty with the U.S. Army, Corps of Engineers, he became a licensed, multi-line insurance agent. In 1977, he entered Washburn University School of Law and graduated summa cum laude with the class of 1980. Upon graduation, he practiced law in Caldwell, first in partnership with Don B. Stallings and later as a sole practitioner.
Judge Johnson was active in numerous community organizations, including serving on the Sumner Mental Health board for 16 years. He served as mayor of Caldwell in 1975-1976, and as Caldwell City Attorney from 1987 to 1997. He is a member of the Kansas and Sumner County Bar Associations, serving as the local bar association president in 1992.
Judge Malone has been a member of the Court of Appeals since 2003. Before that, he served as a Sedgwick County District Judge from January 1991 until his appointment to the Court of Appeals. He was in private practice in Wichita from 1979 to 1990 in the firm of Redmond & Nazar.
He graduated from Kansas Newman College in 1976, summa cum laude, and from Washburn Law School in 1979, with honors, where he was an associate editor of the Washburn Law Journal.
During his 12 years in private practice, he concentrated on business and commercial litigation in federal and state courts and taught upper division Business Law at Kansas Newman College. Judge Malone was elected to the Sedgwick County district bench in 1990 and served as district judge 12 years. He was primarily a trial judge, presiding over more than 250 jury trials and hundreds of bench trials.
He is a member of the Wichita Bar Association, Kansas Bar Association, American Bar Association, and the Kansas Trial Lawyers Association. He serves on the Kansas Judicial Council: Pattern Instructions in Kansas Advisory Committee, which drafts pattern jury instructions for civil and criminal cases for statewide use by the Kansas judiciary. He is also a member of the Board of Editors of the Kansas Bar Association Journal.
Judge Fairchild has been a Douglas County District Judge since 1996 and was appointed chief judge of that judicial district in January 2002. During his tenure as a district judge, Judge Fairchild was appointed to sit with the Court of Appeals three times.
He has continuously practiced law as an attorney or judge for 33 years since being admitted to the bar in 1973. He practiced with the firm of Norwood, King & Fairchild in Lawrence from 1973 through 1978 when the firm merged with another firm to form Riling, Burkhead, Fairchild & Nitcher, Chtd., where he practiced until his appointment as judge.
Judge Fairchild received a B.A. in Economics from Texas Tech University in May 1970, where he was graduated with honors and was a member of Phi Kappa Phi honorary society. He graduated from the University of Kansas School of Law in 1973, graduating sixth in his class of 176. He was a member of the Order of the Coif and the Board of Editors of the Kansas Law Review.
Judge Fairchild previously was the chair of the Supreme Court Advisory Council on Dispute Resolution and presently serves as chair of the Kansas Board of Examiners of Court Reporters. Since 1993, he has served as an adjunct professor at the KU law school, teaching Alternative Dispute Resolution. He also taught criminal law in the spring of 2005 and served as a mediator for 10 years prior to becoming a judge.