Yesterday the New Mexico Judicial Nominating Commission announced that two attorneys, Paul D. Mannick of Santa Fe and Steven S. Suttle of Albuquerque, have applied for the seat on the New Mexico Supreme Court that Justice Patricio Serna will retire from on August 31.
Mr. Mannick’s website notes that he has been a lawyer for over 20 years and focuses on representing plaintiffs in medical malpractice cases. The background section of his website reveals that he is a 1988 graduate of UNM Law School, and that he received a Ph.D. from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, which sounds very impressive indeed.
I could not find a website for Mr. Suttle, but a Lexis search reveals that he formerly worked in the District Attorney’s office in Albuquerque and as an Assistant Attorney General, and that he previously applied to the Nominating Commission in 2008 for a seat on the New Mexico Court of Appeals. The State Bar’s Bench & Bar Directory for 2012-13 lists Mr. Suttle as an “inactive member” as of March 2012, but presumably since then he has taken the steps necessary to activate his State Bar membership.
Unfortunately I don’t recall ever having met Mr. Mannick, but I did have some brief interaction with Mr. Suttle in a case several years ago, and remember him as being very professional.
In any event, good luck to both of these gentlemen! The Nominating Commission meets on August 7 at 9:00 a.m. at the Supreme Court Building in Santa Fe, to decide whether to send their names on to Governor Martinez. The meeting is open to the public.
