Utah County
With 4th District Judge Guy R. Burningham announcing he will retire from the bench on Aug. 29, the administrative office of the court is now taking applications to fill two vacancies on the bench.
Court administrators have posted notice for applications to replace Burningham and Ray Harding Jr., who resigned under pressure in March.
Officials said Thursday they are extending the filing deadline for Harding's position from April 10 to May 2 at 5 p.m., to match the filing deadline for Burningham's position.
Harding's vacancy was created last Month when the 49-year-old judge entered a plea agreement in 3rd District Court to a pair of misdemeanor drug possession charges. The deal with the Utah Attorney General's Office required Harding to resign his judicial post. The resignation came in the face of sanctions from the Utah Judicial Conduct Commission and an impeachment action started in the Utah House of Representatives.
Burningham's retirement has been overshadowed by the controversy surrounding Harding.
Burningham received his law degree from the University of Utah in 1973 and was appointed to the bench in 1992 by Gov. Norman Bangerter. Prior to his appointment, Burningham served as civil division chief for the Utah County Attorney's Office. He was a partner with the firm of Burningham and Taylor from 1975 to 1977.
Burningham is a member of the Board of District Court Judges and the Grand Jury Panel of Judges, the Court Technology Committee and the Task Force of Victim Restitution and Court Ordered Debt.
In recent years, Burningham has presided over several high-profile criminal cases in 4th District Court, including the child rape case involving polygamist Tom Green, the case of murdered Pleasant Grove businesswoman Mina Pajela and the prescription fraud case of ex-Utah Valley State College police chief T. Lonie Fisher.
The Judicial Nominating Commission will review applications and submit five nominees for each position to the governor, who then has 30 days to make a selection. Those selections must then be confirmed by a majority vote of the Utah Senate.
BYU
Brigham Young University's business and law schools are among the top 50 in the United States, reports U.S. News & World Report in the magazine's Best Graduate Schools issue of April 14.
The Marriott School of Management is ranked 29th for the second straight year, and the J. Reuben Clark Law School is ranked 31st, moving up from the 37 spot it held last year.
The Marriott School has maintained or improved its standing in every major business school ranking published in the past two years, including those in the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes and Business Week. The school attributes much of this success, says Ned C. Hill, dean of the Marriott School, to the strength of its students and to an increasingly active alumni network.
"We're always gratified to be ranked among the nation's top business schools," Hill said.
Hill indicated that this past year has been one of the most challenging the school has seen because of the lagging economy and difficult placement environment.
"Given these conditions, we're particularly pleased that both our recruiter and peer assessments have improved, providing our graduates an increased advantage, Hill said."
The University of Utah's S.J. Quinney Law School ranked 40th in the report, while both the U. and Utah State University business schools failed to make the top 50.
"While the U.S. News rankings are, at best, only a rough indicator of the relative strength of law schools," said Dean H. Reese Hansen of the J. Reuben Clark Law School, "we are very pleased to be ranked among the top-tier law schools in the country. We are also pleased to note that the strong reputation of the BYU law school among lawyers and judges continues to grow."
In addition, the academic credentials of BYU's law students rank among the best compared to other top-tier schools. "We are grateful for the support of the university, the board of trustees and our alumni and others who make a legal education at BYU the best buy anywhere," said Hansen. Harvard, Stanford, the University of Pennsylvania, MIT and Northwestern were named the top five business schools while Yale, Stanford, Harvard, Columbia and New York University topped the law school list.
Full ranking reports are available in the newsstand book "America's Best Graduate Schools" and online at www.USNews.com.