TOPEKA—The Supreme Court Nominating Commission today nominated three persons to fill a vacancy on the Court of Appeals that was created by the April death of Judge Jerry G. Elliott, Lawrence.
Nominated were Overland Park Municipal Court Presiding Judge Karen Arnold-Burger; G. Gordon Atcheson, an Overland Park attorney in private practice; and Shawnee County District Judge David E. Bruns. Gov. Mark Parkinson will have 60 days in which to select one of the three.
Eighteen judges and attorneys submitted applications for the vacancy. The Nominating Commission conducted interviews Thursday and today and submitted the names to the governor earlier this afternoon.
Judge Arnold-Burger has been Presiding Judge for the City of Overland Park Municipal Court since 1996, and a judge of that court since 1991. Upon being admitted to practice in 1981, she served as a labor relations attorney for a year with Shell Oil Co., Houston, TX, and then was appointed Assistant City Attorney in Overland Park in 1982, where she rose to First Assistant City Attorney in 1989 before leaving that office to serve as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Kansas City, KS. She served as Assistant U.S. Attorney from 1989 until her appointment as municipal judge in 1991.
She completed both her undergraduate and law school degrees with honors from the University of Kansas.
Atcheson began his law practice in the Sedgwick County District Attorney’s office in 1981 upon completion of law school at the University of Kansas in May of that year. Before that, he received a BA degree with honors from the University of Michigan.
He joined the law firm of Hall, Turner & Pike in Wichita after leaving the district attorney’s office in 1983. He remained with that firm until 1987 when he joined the firm of Shamberg, Johnson & Bergman. In 1989, he left that firm and began a private practice with the firm of Blake & Uhlig, where he remained until February 2005, when he founded the firm of The Atcheson Law Office, Westwood, where he currently practices.
Judge Bruns has been a Shawnee County District Court judge since 1999, and before that was in private practice with the Topeka firm of Goodell, Stratton, Edmonds & Palmer since 1984, when he was graduated from the Washburn University School of Law. He is a 1981 graduate of the University of Kansas with a BS in Secondary Education, with distinction.
The Supreme Court Nominating Commission is chaired by lawyer Anne E. Burke of Overland Park. Others on the Commission include: First Congressional District, Kerry E. McQueen of Liberal (lawyer member) and Dr. Janet A. Juhnke of Salina (lay member); Second Congressional District, Patricia E. Riley of Topeka (lawyer member) and Dale E. Cushinberry (lay member); Third Congressional District, Matthew D. Keenan of Leawood (lawyer member) and Katherine DeBruce of Shawnee Mission (lay member); and Fourth Congressional District, Jay F. Fowler of Wichita (lawyer member) and Paul F. Babich of Wichita (lay member).