TOPEKA—Chief Judge Larry T. Solomon, who has served in the 30th Judicial District since 1989, will retire Aug. 31. He has been chief judge since 1991.
Solomon has spent his entire legal career based in Kingman. He moved there following graduation from the Washburn University School of Law to join the Wunsch law firm. In addition to his private practice, he served as Kingman city attorney from 1980 to 1989 and Kingman County attorney from 1981 to 1985.
A Wichita native, he earned his bachelor's degree from Wichita State University. Solomon said he is proud of his service from 1994 to 2000 as the first chair of the Kansas Supreme Court Advisory Council on Dispute Resolution.
"Mediation and dispute resolution have always been something I've been interested in and have encouraged in the court system. It reduces the workload of the court and reduces the stress and strife in litigation, primarily in families," he said.
He also served on the Kansas Sentencing Commission from 2005 to 2008 and was president of the Kansas District Judges Association in 2003-04. Solomon was awarded the Distinguished Service Award from the Kansas Association for Justice in 2015 and the Courageous Judge Award from the Kansas Bar Association in 2016 after successfully challenging a 2014 law that changed the way chief judges were selected.
Solomon said he and his wife, Sarah, will retire in Wichita. They plan to travel, which includes visiting their three sons and their four grandchildren, who are in Phoenix and San Diego.
"I've enjoyed my tenure serving the citizens of the 30th Judicial District as a judge," Solomon said. "I didn't plan to end up in a small town, but Kingman has been very good to me and my family."
The 30th Judicial District is composed of Barber, Harper, Kingman, Pratt and Sumner counties. The district's judicial nominating commission will announce when it is accepting applications for Solomon's successor. After interviewing candidates, the commission will forward the names of finalists to the governor, who will appoint the next judge.