Chief Judge Janice Davidson (Ret.) Joining IAALS as Senior Advisor

IAALS Executive Director Rebecca Love Kourlis and Chief Judge Janice Davidson participated in a Law Day program on Colorado's merit selection system in 2012.

 

Denver, CO - IAALS, the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System at the University of Denver, is happy to welcome Colorado Court of Appeals Chief Judge Janice B. Davidson (Ret.) as she takes on her role as Senior Advisor at IAALS.

Chief Judge Davidson sat on the Colorado Court of Appeals for twenty-five years until retiring this year. She served as Chief Judge of the court since 2003.

She will be involved with all of IAALS' initiatives to some extent, but will focus her time primarily on the Quality Judges Initiative, beginning in January 2014.

"Chief Judge Davidson brings years of experience on the bench and a passion for the need for qualified, impartial judges at all levels of our court system," said IAALS Executive Director Rebecca Love Kourlis. "She will help to ensure that the initiative continues to provide states, bar associations, and stakeholders with the tools they need to evaluate judges."

The Quality Judges Initiative is home to the O'Connor Judicial Selection Plan—developed by former United States Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor in conjunction with IAALS—which contains IAALS' recommendations for selecting judges and balances the need for fair and impartial courts with the need for public accountability and transparency. Justice O'Connor continues to play an active role on the initiative's advisory committee.

Quality Judges is an initiative of IAALS dedicated to advancing empirically informed models for choosing, evaluating, and retaining judges that preserve impartiality and accountability.

IAALS, the Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System at the University of Denver, is a national, independent research center dedicated to continuous improvement of the American legal system.