Chief Justice Mark S. Cady
Chief Justice Cady, Ft. Dodge, was appointed to the Iowa Supreme Court in 1998. The
members of the court selected him as chief justice in 2010.
Born in Rapid City, South Dakota, Chief Justice Cady earned both his undergraduate and law degrees from Drake University. After graduating from law school in 1978, he served as a judicial law clerk for the Second Judicial District for one year. He was then appointed as an assistant Webster County attorney and practiced with a law firm in Fort Dodge. Chief Justice Cady was appointed a district associate judge in 1983 and a district court judge in 1986. In 1994, he was appointed to the Iowa Court of Appeals. He was elected chief judge of the court of appeals in 1997 and served until his appointment to the supreme court.
Chief Justice Cady is a member of the Order of the Coif (honorary), The Iowa State Bar Association, the American Bar Association, the Iowa Judges Association, and Iowa Academy of Trial Lawyers (honorary). He also served as chair of the Supreme Court’s Task Force on the Court’s and Communities’ Response to Domestic Abuse and is a member of the Drake Law School Board of Counselors. In 2013, Chief Justice Cady was elected to the Conference of Chief Justices Board of Directors. He is the coauthor of Preserving the Delicate Balance Between Judicial Accountability and Independence: Merit Selection in the Post- White World, 16 Cornell J.L. and Pub. Pol’y 101 (2008) and of Iowa Practice: Lawyer and Judicial Ethics (Thomson-West 2007). He is the author of Curbing Litigation Abuse and Misuse: A Judicial Approach, 36 Drake L. Rev. 481 (1987). Justice Cady also delivered remarks at the 2012 Drake Law School Constitutional Law Symposium, The Iowa Judiciary, Funding, and the Poor, 60 Drake L. Rev. 1127 (2012) and presented the inaugural Drake Law School Iowa Constitution Lecture, A Pioneer’s Constitution: How Iowa’s Constitutional History Uniquely Shapes Our Pioneering Tradition in Recognizing Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, 60 Drake L. Rev. 1133 (2012). He served on the Board of Directors of the Conference of Chief Justices and chairs its Committee on Courts, Children, and Families, and the Committee on Judicial Selection and Compensation.
Chief Justice Cady was an adjunct faculty member at Buena Vista University for more than 30 years and served on its President’s Advisory Council. In 2012 he received an honorary doctorate degree in Public Service from Buena Vista University. Chief Justice Cady received the Award of Merit from the Iowa Judges Association in 2015. He received the Outstanding Alumnus Award from Drake University Law School in 2011 and received the Alumni Achievement Award from Drake University in 2012. Chief Justice Cady is also the
Iowa chair of iCivics Inc.
Chief Justice Cady is married with two children and two grandchildren.