Saint Paul – Governor Tim Pawlenty today announced that he has accepted the recommendations of the Commission on Judicial Selection for a Third Judicial District trial court bench vacancy in Freeborn County. The vacancy will occur with the retirement of the Honorable James E. Broberg on April 29, 2008. The Minnesota Supreme Court certified the continuation of the chambers of this judgeship for the city of Albert Lea in Freeborn County. The finalists are Karyn D. McBride, Steven R. Schwab, and David J. Walker.

McBride, of Austin, is an assistant Freeborn County Attorney in Albert Lea, a position she has held since 1999. She was a Third Judicial District contract administrative law judge and a child support magistrate in 1997, and again from 1998 to 1999, as well as an associate attorney with the Richardson and McBride Law Office in Austin from 1990 to 1999. She was also a judicial law clerk to Third Judicial District Judges Michael H. Seibel and James L. Mork from 1989 to 1990, and a law clerk in the Bird and Jacobson Law Firm in Rochester from 1988 to 1989. McBride earned her juris doctorate degree from Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul in 1989, and her bachelor of arts degree from the University of Wisconsin, River Falls, in 1979.

Schwab, of Albert Lea, is the Albert Lea City Attorney, a position he has held since 1989. He was a corporate attorney with Farm Credit Service of Mankato from 1986 through 1988, and an associate attorney as well as an assistant Brown County attorney with the Berens, Rodenberg and O’Connor Law Firm in New Ulm from 1982 to 1986. Schwab earned his juris doctorate degree from St. Louis University Law School in St. Louis, Missouri in 1982, and his bachelor of science degree from St. John’s University in Collegeville in 1979.

Walker, of Albert Lea, is an assistant Freeborn County Attorney, a position he has held since 1992. Previously, he was a U.S. Army Judge Advocate in Fort Drum, New York and Charlottesville, Virginia from 1988 to 1991. Walker earned his juris doctorate degree from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1988 and his bachelor of arts degree magna cum laude from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, in 1985.

The Commission on Judicial Selection screens judicial candidates and makes recommendations to the Governor for district court vacancies that occur during the term of a judge. The commission consists of 13 members: nine at-large members and four members from the judicial district. The commission members include attorneys and non-attorneys appointed by the Governor and the Minnesota Supreme Court. The commission received 13 applications for this judicial vacancy.