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.