Saint Paul – Governor Tim Pawlenty today announced that he has accepted the recommendations of the Commission on Judicial Selection for a Fourth Judicial District trial court bench vacancy in Hennepin County. The vacancy is as a result of the death of the Honorable Steven A. Pihlaja on September 17, 2008. The finalists are Dana Banwer, Michelle A. Hatcher, Joseph R. Klein, and Andrew J. Mitchell.

Banwer, of Minneapolis, is an assistant Minneapolis City Attorney, currently in the civil division. She was the deputy Minneapolis City Attorney in the criminal division from 2002 to January 2009, and was an assistant Minneapolis City Attorney from 1991 to 2002. Previously, she was the manager of business and legal affairs with Simitar Entertainment from 1990 to 1991, and a corporate counsel with Unisys Corporation/Convergent Business Systems, Inc’s legal affairs department from 1987 to 1990. Banwer earned her juris doctorate degree from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1986, and her bachelor of arts degree from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1978.

Hatcher, of Brooklyn Park, is an assistant Hennepin County Attorney, a position she held from 2001 to 2004 and again since 2005. From May 2004 to March 2005, she was an associate attorney at the Rider Bennett law firm in Minneapolis. She was also an assistant Scott County Attorney in Shakopee from 1999 to 2000, and a law clerk to Fourth Judicial District Judge Mary E. Steenson Dufresne from 1998 to 1999. Hatcher earned her juris doctorate degree from William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul in May 1998, and her bachelor of arts degree in criminology from the University of Windsor in Windsor, Ontario in 1994.

Klein, of Minnetonka, is an attorney with the Law Office of Andrew P. Sherwood in Roseville, where he serves as house counsel for Progressive Group of Insurance Companies. He has been an attorney with the firm since 2006. Previously, he was a contract attorney with Universal Underwriters Group in Edina from 2005 to 2006, an attorney with Zurich North American Insurance from 2004 to 2005, a quality assurance supervisor with Medical Evaluations, Inc. in Minneapolis from 2000 to 2003, and an attorney and shareholder with the Moss and Barnett law firm in Minneapolis from 1987 to 2000. Klein earned his juris doctorate degree from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1986, his bachelor of arts degree from the University of Minnesota in 1982, and his associate of arts degree from Rochester Community College in 1979.

Mitchell, of Minnetonka, is a senior assistant Hennepin County Attorney, a position he has held since 1996. He was an assistant Hennepin County Attorney from 1993 to 1996, an attorney with the Minneapolis law firm of Lindquist and Vennum in 1993, an attorney with the Minneapolis law firm of Hennessey and Mitchell from 1991 to 1993, an attorney and shareholder with the Bloomington law firm of Larkin, Hoffman, Daly and Lindgren from 1980 to 1991, and a law clerk for the Honorable Gerald W. Heaney, Judge of the United States Court of Appeals in the Eighth Circuit from 1979 to 1980. Mitchell earned his juris doctorate degree cum laude from the University of Minnesota Law School in 1978, and his bachelor of arts degree magna cum laude from St. Olaf College in Northfield in 1974.

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 35 applications for this judicial vacancy.