Posted: Thursday, May 10, 2012

Minnesota Supreme Court Associate Justice Helen Meyer has announced that she will leave the state’s highest court, effective Aug. 10, 2012.

“Over my 10 years as a member of the Supreme Court and 20 years as a trial lawyer, I have developed a great respect for the people who work in the Judicial Branch,” Justice Meyer wrote in her letter to Governor Mark Dayton announcing her decision to leave the court.  “Our judges and court staff are an extraordinarily talented and dedicated group of people. With the support of the other branches of government and the public, our judges and court staff have built a judicial system that is very highly regarded for the effective delivery of justice for all.  At a time when the public’s trust and confidence in all institutions is shaken, the court system in Minnesota stands as a beacon of hope to our citizens.” 

“I will miss my colleagues and the challenging work of the Court, but I look forward to returning to the life of a private citizen.”

Justice Meyer was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2002 by Governor Jesse Ventura and was elected to six-year terms in 2004 and 2010. Before joining the court, she worked for 20 years as a civil litigator and mediator. She earned state and national certification as a civil trial specialist and held leadership positions in several law organizations. She also served as a member of the governor’s Commission on Judicial Selection, where she made recommendations regarding the appointments of more than 60 district and appellate court judges.

In addition to her regular duties on the Court, Justice Meyer has served as chair of both the Supreme Court’s Chemical Dependency Task Force and the Minnesota Judicial Council’s Workgroup on Legal Representation of Parents in Child Protection Cases.  Currently, she is the Court’s liaison to the Judicial Branch’s Children’s Justice Initiative (CJI), a member of the State Court Administrator’s CJI Advisory Committee, and a member of the Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission.

Justice Meyer was born and raised in St. Joseph, Minnesota, on a Stearns County dairy farm.  She graduated from the University of Minnesota with a bachelor’s degree in social work and received her law degree from William Mitchell College of Law.

“Justice Helen Meyer has made a significant and lasting contribution to the administration of justice in Minnesota through her 10 years of dedicated service on the Supreme Court,” said Supreme Court Chief Justice Lorie S. Gildea. “We will miss her, and we are grateful for the opportunity we had to serve with such an outstanding jurist and a good and kind person. We wish Justice Meyer all the best.”