Chief Justice Christine Durham, Utah Supreme Court

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. She 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. Chief Justice Durham has been active in judicial education, serving as the first chair of the Utah Judicial Council´s Education Committee and a founder of the Leadership Institute in Judicial Education. Her work for Utah´s courts has included service on the Governor´s Task Force that recommended legislation to implement the 1985 amendments to the Judicial Article of the Utah Constitution, the Utah Judicial Council, the Commission on Justice in the 21st Century, and the Committee on Improving Jury Service, which she co-chaired. She was the first chair of the courts´ Public Outreach Committee, and leads the Coalition for Civic, Character, and Service Learning, which is 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. She also served on the Utah Constitutional Revision Commission for 12 years. Nationally, Chief Justice Durham is on the Council of the American Law Institute and the American Bar Association´s Council of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar. Along with teaching state constitutional law at the University of Utah College of Law, Justice Durham has also taught at Duke University and Brigham Young University. She has received honorary degrees from the University of Utah, Weber State University, Salt Lake Community College, and the College of Eastern Utah and has been recognized nationally for her work in judicial education and efforts to improve the administration of justice. In 2007, Chief Justice Durham received the William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence.