1st Female Chief Justice on Louisiana's Supreme Court
As the longest-serving member of the Louisiana Supreme Court, Justice Catherine “Kitty” Kimball is set to make history today when she becomes the state’s first female chief justice.
In her new leadership role, she succeeds Justice Pascal Calogero, who retired after 36 years on the court, reports the New Orleans Times-Picayune. The chief justice post, in Louisiana, goes to the most senior justice.
“I don’t feel I struggled very much, ” says Kimball, 63, even though women students were a rarity when she attended law school at Louisiana State University in the 1960s. (She graduated in 1970.) She was also the first woman ever to be elected to the state supreme court.
In a lengthy profile, the newspaper describes her as an outsider who won a surprise victory in a 1992 election for a seat on the state’s highest court, after serving for a decade as a state district court judge. Kimball is known for “textbook-type opinions” closely adhering to legal precedent, according to a former law professor, and particularly enjoys administrative work.
Kimball started taking a leadership role in a number of areas as Calogero neared the end of his career on the supreme court bench. They include the judicial system’s recovery from the damage wreaked on New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005.
