David Gormley

Question 1

List your judicial experience (courts and years)

I have served as a trial judge for more than 16 years.  I am currently a judge on the Court of Common Pleas in Delaware County, where I handle felony criminal cases and a wide variety of civil cases.  I was elected in 2014 and began serving on that court in February 2015.  I was reelected in 2020.

From January 2008 until February 2015, I served as a judge on the Delaware Municipal Court, where I handled misdemeanor criminal cases, traffic cases, and civil cases.  I was elected to that job in 2007, and I was reelected in 2013. 

My trial-court experience will be extremely valuable to me at the court of appeals.  Having presided over more than 160 jury trials, I understand the tough calls that trial judges must make during jury trials and in their other work, I have imposed sentences in thousands of criminal and traffic cases, and I think I have earned a well-deserved reputation for being a fair, hard-working, courteous, and humble judge.

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Question 2

What non-judicial legal experience qualifies you to be a judge?

I served for four years (2004-2007) as the Director of Legal Resources for the Supreme Court of Ohio, which essentially means that I was the in-house legal counsel at that court.  While in that role, I worked closely with then-Chief Justice Thomas Moyer, who was a wonderful mentor for me.

From 1997 until 2003, I worked in the Ohio Attorney General’s office under then-Attorney General Betty Montgomery.  From 2000 until 2003, I served in that office as the State Solicitor of Ohio, which means that I oversaw the office’s appellate work in the Supreme Court of the United States, the Supreme Court of Ohio, and other state and federal appellate courts.  I successfully defended the constitutionality of Ohio’s state motto “With God All Things Are Possible” when that motto was challenged in federal court.  (That case was ACLU of Ohio v. Capitol Square Review & Advisory Board, 243 F.3d 289 (6th Cir. 2001).)

From 1993 until 1997, and then again for several months in 2003, I served as an assistant prosecuting attorney for Delaware County.  In that role, I prosecuted many felony cases including a death-penalty murder case (State of Ohio v. Gerald R. Hand), and I also represented county and township elected officials and agencies.

Earlier in my legal career (1991-1993), I served as an associate at the Jenner & Block law firm in Chicago.  And during the first year after I graduated from Harvard Law School in 1990, I served as a law clerk for Judge Albert Engel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.

I bring a broad range of judicial and legal experience to this race, and I think that my work as an appellate lawyer and as a law clerk for a federal appellate-court judge will be particularly helpful to me if I’m elected to the court of appeals this year.

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Question 3

Why are you running for this particular court seat?

I think that the public expects judges on any court to be knowledgeable about the law and about life, to be level-headed and patient, to be good listeners who are open-minded, and to issue prompt and well-reasoned decisions.  I bring to this race a track record of serving as that kind of judge for 16 years, and there is no better way to evaluate how a judge might handle his or her work in the future than to examine how that judge has performed in the past.

I’m very proud of my 16 years of service as a trial judge, and I think that my experience in that role will make me a very strong appellate judge right from the start. 

I also think that I bring the kind of academic credentials and legal experience that the public rightly expects from judges on our most important courts.  I was the valedictorian of my high-school class in 1983, and I graduated from Harvard Law School in 1990.  I’ve argued before the Supreme Court of the United States, I’ve handled numerous high-profile and complex cases as a lawyer and as a judge, and I’ve demonstrated time and again that I approach my work in a non-ideological way and without any bias or prejudice.

I enjoy intellectually challenging work, I think that I’m a strong writer, and I like handling a variety of civil and criminal cases.  My experience of working in the public sector and in the private sector, of working in large offices and small ones, of handling trial work and appellate work, and of serving as both a lawyer and as a judge will equip me well to take on the important work of reviewing trial-court decisions at the court of appeals.

I am grateful that this site gives me the chance to share some information about my background, and I commend those voters who are seeking out information about their judicial candidates.  Judges can have a huge impact on their communities, and I think it’s vital that we choose smart, capable, hard-working, and experienced people for both our trial-court and appellate-court positions.

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