BISMARCK - The state's chief litigator and two lawyers in private practice from Fargo and Bismarck are finalists for the North Dakota Supreme Court.
The state Judicial Nominating Committee sent the names of Daniel Crothers of Fargo, state Solicitor General Douglas Bahr and Bismarck attorney David Reich to Gov. John Hoeven at 5 p.m. Tuesday after interviewing nine candidates.
Hoeven has 30 days to appoint one of them to the court or reject the list and ask the committee to start over. The replacement will take the seat vacated by Justice William Neumann, who retired this spring. Neumann is now executive director of the State Bar Association.
The committee voted unanimously on the first ballot to submit the three names after spending the day interviewing at the State Bar Association office in Bismarck.
The finalists were the most highly rated of nine applicants by a Bar Association poll of its members.
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Crothers has practiced law at the Nilles firm in Fargo since 1987, primarily in commercial litigation. He is a former Walsh County assistant state's attorney and also was in civil litigation in New Mexico and another Fargo firm. His undergraduate degree and law degree are both from the University of North Dakota, where he graduated in 1982.
Crothers was born in Fargo and grew up mostly in West Fargo.
Bahr has been with the North Dakota attorney general's Civil Litigation Division since 1991 and solicitor general since 1999. His 1990 law degree is from the University of South Dakota School of Law. His undergraduate degree is from Brigham Young University.
Bahr is minister and youth leader of the Bismarck-Mandan congregation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and was a bishop from 1994-2004.
Reich was born in Jamestown. He has practiced with the Pearce and Durick firm in Bismarck since 1983. He was a law clerk at the state Supreme Court in 1982-83. His undergraduate and law degrees are from UND, where he received his juris doctor in 1982.
The other applicants were Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Byers, Grand Forks attorney Jonathan Christensen, Mandan attorney Thomas Kelsch, Cass County Assistant State's Attorney Lisa Fair McEvers, Bismarck attorney Todd Schwarz and Gregory Stites, a legal compliance officer from Kansas City.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Janell Cole at (701) 224-0830
