Linda Lucille Chezem

Title

Linda Lucille Chezem

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Description

Linda Lucille Chezem was born in Brazil, Indiana (1946) and attended Brazil Senior High School. After attending Indiana Central College, Monterey Peninsula College (1965) and the University of Maryland (1966), she graduated with a B.S. in English from Indiana State University in 1968. In 1969, she enrolled at the Indiana University School of Law and graduated with her J.D. degree in 1971. From law school, Chezem began her legal career in private practice in the small southern Indiana town of Paoli.

In 1975, Governor Otis Bowen appointed Chezem to be a Judge in the Lawrence County Court, the first woman to serve as a county judge in the state. In 1982, she became the first female circuit court judge in the state, when she joined the Lawrence Circuit Court. In 1988, she was appointed to the Indiana Court of Appeals, a position she would hold for 10 years. In 1998, Chezem began a second career in education when she became a Professor at Purdue University’s Youth Development and Agriculture Education department. In addition, she holds an adjunct appointment at the Indiana University School of Medicine. For the first six years of her career in education, she continued to assist the Indiana courts by serving as a special judge in over 300 cases serving 25 different counties.

Chezem’s list of awards is astonishing. A few highlights include the Juvenile Judges Symposium’s Robert J. Kinsey Award for Outstanding Judicial Service and Support to the Children and Youth of Indiana (1988), Indiana State University’s Distinguished Alumni Award (2000), Indiana Lawyer magazine’s Distinguished Barrister award (2008), and three separate Sagamore of the Wabash awards (1988, 1997, and 1998) from three separate Indiana governors. Linda Lucille Chezem was inducted into the Indiana University School of Law Academy of Law Alumni Fellows in 2007.

Keywords

Maurer Alumni, Indiana Judges, Lawrence County, Purdue University, Academy of Law Alumni Fellows

Disciplines

Agriculture Law | Judges | Juvenile Law | Law | Legal Biography | Legal Profession

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Linda Lucille Chezem
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