[ New to the Court ]
COURTESY OF THE OHIO SUPREME COURT
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Alumna appointed to Ohio Supreme Court BY MONICA DEMEGLIO
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T H E O H I O S TAT E U N I V E R S I T Y
hankfully, Judith French ’88 had found the hand crank on the side of the lectern the last time she argued before the Supreme Court of the United States. She knew just how many turns were required to lower the lectern to fit her 5-foot frame so she could argue her case confidently. The only thing she needed to do was to keep her nerves from overwhelming her as she stood there that February morning, waiting for Chief Justice William Rehnquist to acknowledge her. At stake was the future of not only the school voucher program in Cleveland but questions about the separation of church and state. “In law school, when I gave moot court arguments, my leg would shake when I got nervous,” the alumna of The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law recalled. “You can’t let that happen there. So I had practiced at home with my daughter, who was 11 at the time. She would call the case and make me wait and wait.” The newest justice to the Ohio Supreme Court said those kinds of experiences have encouraged her to be nice from the bench to lawyers before her. There are moments when any lawyer can find herself struggling or overcoming a case of nerves with an important task at hand. “I don’t ever want to be that justice who belittles an attorney, who makes them feel like they don’t know the answer,” French said. “In those moments where I know the lawyer really needs a drink of water or doesn’t know how to answer a certain question, I try to show kindness or even throw a lifeline, referencing a point made in a brief perhaps.” French was appointed Dec. 20 by Ohio Gov. John R. Kasich to fill the vacancy left by Ohio Supreme Court Justice Evelyn Lundberg Stratton ’79, who retired at the end of 2012. French will serve the remainder of Stratton’s term and run for the office in 2014. “It was important that we picked somebody who in many ways would kind of be in the same mold as Judge Stratton, who’s done a fantastic job over there,” Kasich told Court News Ohio. “She’s going to be a great judge and a great addition, and I also think she’ll be a strong candidate when the time comes for her to run. She’s got a lot of fire in her, and I’m just very excited to do this.” French most recently served on the 10th District Court of Appeals, an eight-member court with jurisdiction over civil, criminal, and administrative appeals. She was appointed to that post by then-Ohio Gov. Bob Taft in 2004 and won election to six-year terms in 2004 and 2010. Prior to that, French was the chief counsel to both Taft and former Ohio Attorney General Betty Montgomery.