Chief Justice Mark S. Cady
Chief Justice Cady, Ft. Dodge, was appointed to the
Iowa Supreme Court October 15, 1998, and became the Chief Justice in
January 2011. He was born in Rapid City,
South Dakota. Chief Justice Cady earned both his undergraduate and
law degrees from Drake University. After graduating from law school in
1978, he served as a judicial law clerk for the Second Judicial District for
one year. He was then appointed as an assistant Webster County attorney
and practiced with a law firm in Fort Dodge. Cady was appointed as a
district associate judge in 1983 and a district court judge in 1986. In
1994, he was appointed to the Iowa Court of Appeals. He was elected chief
judge of the Court of Appeals in 1997.
Justice Cady is a member of
the Order of Coif (honorary), Iowa Judges Association, and Iowa Academy of
Trial Lawyers (honorary). He is the Iowa chair of iCivics
Inc. He also served as chair of the Supreme Court's Task Force on the
Court's and Communities' Response to Domestic Abuse and is a member of the
Drake Law School Board of Counselors. Chief Justice Cady is the coauthor
of Iowa Practice: Lawyer and Judicial Ethics (Thomson-West 2007);
the coauthor of Preserving the Delicate Balance Between Judicial
Accountability and Independence: Merit Selection in the Post-White World,
16 Cornell J.L. and Pub. Pol'y 101 (2008); the author
of Curbing Litigation Abuse and Misuse: A Judicial Approach, 36 Drake L.
Rev. 481 (1987); the author of The Iowa Judiciary, Funding, and the Poor,
60 Drake L. Rev. 1127 (2012); and the author of A Pioneer's Constitution:
How Iowa's Constitutional History Uniquely Shapes Our Pioneering Tradition in
Recognizing Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, 60 Drake L. Rev. 1133
(2012).
Chief Justice Cady is an adjunct faculty
member at Buena Vista University and serves on the President's Advisory
Council. He received an honorary degree in Public Service (Doctorate) from
Buena Vista University in 2012. Chief Justice Cady received the
Outstanding Alumnus Award from Drake University Law School in 2011 and received
the Alumni Achievement Award from Drake University in 2012. He is married
and has two children.
His current term expires December 31, 2016.
