 Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Marsha K. Ternus, LW’77 |
Iowa Supreme Court Chief Justice Marsha K. Ternus returned to her alma mater to give the commencement address at Drake University Law School’s Commencement Ceremony on Friday, May 11, at the Drake Knapp Center. Her address, titled “A Life That’s Full,” is posted online.
Approximately 160 law students were honored at the ceremony, which was preceded by a bagpipe player leading a formal procession of law students and faculty wearing academic regalia from Opperman Hall and Library to the Drake Knapp Center.
Chief Justice Ternus was appointed by Gov. Terry Branstad to the Iowa Supreme Court on July 28, 1993. Thirteen years later, in September 2006, she was elected by fellow members of the Supreme Court to succeed Drake Law School alumnus Louis A. Lavorato as the Court’s next chief justice and Iowa’s first female chief justice.
A native of Vinton, Iowa, Chief Justice Ternus earned her bachelor’s degree with honors and high distinction from the University of Iowa in 1972. She received her Juris Doctor degree in 1977, with honors, from Drake Law School and was elected to The Order of the Coif, the national law school scholastic honor society. At the Law School, among other distinctions, she was the editor in chief of the Drake Law Review.
Prior to joining the Court, Chief Justice Ternus practiced law and was a partner in the firm of Bradshaw, Fowler, Proctor and Fairgrave in Des Moines, where she specialized in trial and appellate practice. She served as president of the Polk County Bar Association and was a member of the Board of Governors of the Iowa State Bar Association, the Board of Directors of the Legal Aid Society of Polk County and the Iowa Supreme Court Jury Instructions Committee.
At Drake, she was a member of and served as president of the Law School’s advisory board, the Board of Counselors. She also was a member of the Task Force on the Law School for the National Commission on the Future of Drake University in 1987-88 and chaired the Task Force for the Law School for the National Commission II during 1993-94. In 1996 the Law School Board of Counselors selected her to receive the Law School Alumni of the Year Award.