Carroll Attorney, Gina Badding, is fulfilling a nearly lifelong goal of becoming a judge, following her appointment to the bench by Gov. Kim Reynolds on Monday. Badding, a Kuemper graduate, has been a member of the Iowa Bar Association for nearly 15 years, practicing in Carroll with Neu, Minnich, Comito, Halbur, Neu and Badding, P.C. for the last six years. According to her, she knew from a young age that she wanted to work in a courtroom and becoming a judge was always her end goal.
Badding will be filling one of the vacancies created by the retirement of two judges, William Ostlund and Thomas Bice, and several other judges are also approaching retirement. Badding, who is 39 years old, will become one of the youngest judges in the district and notes many other recent appointments are of a similar age.. She says the average age of individuals on the bench is likely to continue trending downward.
Judges can choose where their office will be housed, and Badding has indicated she plans for that to be in the Carroll County Courthouse. She has just under 30 days to resolve her pending cases before beginning any judicial duties. She says it is exciting to begin this next stage of her career, but it will be bittersweet to leave behind her work as an attorney.
It is not just the law firm she will be leaving. She is also required to resign from the Carroll Community School District (CCSD) Board of Education.
She will formally tender her resignation to the board at the Monday, April 8 meeting. As of Wednesday, a date for Badding’s investiture has not been set.
