A Utah Supreme Court justice has been chosen to receive a national award for judicial excellence.
Christine Durham, who has served on the Supreme Court since 1982, was selected by the American Judicature Society to receive the Eighth Annual Dwight D. Opperman Award for Judicial Excellence.
"Justice Durham is the personification of judicial excellence," said Justice Randy Holland, of the Delaware Supreme Court, in a news release.
Holland worked as the chair of the three-person award selection panel. Durham was nominated by former Chief Justice Ruth V. McGregor, of the Arizona Supreme Court, who received the same award six years ago.
"[Justice Durham] has served as a role model to hundreds, perhaps thousands, of young women and men who see in her the characteristics they hope someday to possess," she wrote in her nomination letter.
Durham served as chief justice and chair of the Utah Judicial Council from 2002 to 2012. She began her judicial career seven years after graduation from law school, and before being appointed to the Utah Supreme Court, she served on the Utah District Court.
