Gov. Bill Walker on Thursday named Fairbanks attorney Susan Carney to the state Supreme Court, where she'll replace retiring Justice Dana Fabe.
Carney, 54, is a supervising attorney in the Fairbanks defense section of the state's Office of Public Advocacy, which does legal advocacy for vulnerable Alaskans.
She's spent 18 years working for OPA, helping represent juvenile delinquents, parents in child protection cases and poor people charged with crimes.
Carney said Thursday that she plans to remain in Fairbanks, where she arrived in 1987 straight from Harvard University to clerk for former Alaska Supreme Court Justice Jay Rabinowitz -- who later performed her wedding ceremony in Massachusetts.
"I'm pretty stunned," Carney told a crowd of attorneys at the Alaska Bar Association's annual convention in downtown Anchorage on Thursday, where Walker announced his selection. She added: "Once my head stops spinning, I look forward to the opportunity to do my very best to follow the footsteps of Justice Fabe and Justice Rabinowitz to make Alaska the best it can possibly be."
Fabe, who became the first woman on the Supreme Court when she was appointed by Gov. Tony Knowles in 1996 and later became the court's first female chief justice, announced her retirement last year.
Walker selected Carney from a four-person list sent to him last month by the Alaska Judicial Council -- an independent commission created by the state constitution that includes three citizens, three attorneys chosen by the Alaska Bar Association, and the Alaska Supreme Court's chief justice, Craig Stowers.
The other finalists were Jahna Lindemuth, a private attorney in Anchorage, and two Superior Court judges, Andrew Guidi of Anchorage and Philip Pallenberg of Juneau.
Carney will join sitting justices Daniel Winfree, Peter Maassen, Joel Bolger and Stowers.
Before joining OPA, Carney spent a decade working for the state as a public defender. Walker said one of his reasons for choosing Carney was her experience working in rural Alaska; he said they also bonded over basketball.
Carney played on Harvard's junior varsity basketball team and still plays regularly with a group of attorneys in Fairbanks. She'll keep playing, she said Thursday, "if my schedule allows."