David E. Gilbertson

Creating a new system of specialty courts, establishing a program to train and recruit rural legal practitioners, and positively influencing the lives of those he worked with every day will be the lasting impact of the longest-tenured chief justice in South Dakota history. David Gilbertson, the son of a nurse and minister, grew up in Sisseton, South Dakota.

He graduated from South Dakota State University in 1972 with three undergraduate degrees–in history, political science and geography–the first student to do so in just four years. In 1975, he graduated with his Juris Doctor from the University of South Dakota School of Law, where he later crossed paths with fellow South Dakota Supreme Court justices with whom he would later serve: John Konenkamp ‘74 J.D., Steven Zinter ’72 B.S., ‘75 J.D., Glen Severson ’72 B.S., ’75 J.D., Lori Wilbur ’74 B.A., ’77 J.D. and Judith Meierhenry ’66 B.S., ’68 M.A., ’77 J.D. After law school, Gilbertson returned to Sisseton as a prosecutor. Within six months, he tried his first murder case, winning a first-degree manslaughter conviction.

In 1986, South Dakota Gov. Bill Janklow appointed Gilbertson to the Fifth Judicial Circuit. At the time, at the age of 35, he was the youngest judge in South Dakota. In 1995, Gov. Janklow would again appoint Gilbertson, this time to the South Dakota Supreme Court. He would be elected as chief justice in 2001–his first of five terms.

Even beyond South Dakota, Chief Justice Gilbertson has been actively charting the course of state judiciaries. He previously served as president of the Conference of Chief Justices and as chair of the Board of the National Center for State Courts.