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Utah Gov. Gary Herbert has now appointed 100 judges

(Rick Egan  |  Tribune file photo)  Gov. Gary Herbert, shown in this photo from Feb. 12, 2020, has appointed his 100th judge.

(Rick Egan | Tribune file photo) Gov. Gary Herbert, shown in this photo from Feb. 12, 2020, has appointed his 100th judge.

With his latest appointment, Gov. Gary Herbert has now picked the past 100 Utah judges.

That means 75% of all of Utah’s judges have been selected by Herbert during his 11 1/2 years in office, according to the governor’s office.

“Making appointments to the bench is a great responsibility, and one I do not take lightly,” the governor said in a Tuesday statement. “I am consistently impressed by the high caliber of candidates I interview as part of the selection process, and I am grateful to the many qualified people who are willing to serve the people of Utah as judges.”

Herbert’s latest pick is Robert Lund, who will be a judge in 1st District Court in northern Utah pending confirmation by the state Senate.

Lund currently works as the national security and anti-terrorism coordinator for the U.S. attorney’s office, where he has been employed since 2001. He previously worked as a prosecutor from 1994 to 2001, and had a 19-year military legal career prior to that.

Lund is the third judge that Herbert has appointed this month alone. He also appointed longtime public defender Bryan Galloway to be a 1st District juvenile judge, and Annette Jan, who worked in the Utah attorney general’s office’s child protection division, to be a juvenile judge for the 3rd District Court.

Herbert’s judicial selections will be coming to a close. He is not running for reelection this November.

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