Cathy R. Silak (born May 25, 1950) is the former dean of the

Concordia University School of Law Concordia University School of Law was a private law school in Boise, Idaho. It admitted its first class of 75 students in August 2012. The school was part of Concordia University, a private Lutheran university based in Portland, Oregon. Concor ...

Boise, Idaho Boise (, , ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho and is the county seat of Ada County. On the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is east of the Oregon border and north of the Nevada border. The downtown ...

. She is a former justice of the

Idaho Supreme Court The Idaho Supreme Court is the state supreme court of Idaho and is composed of the chief justice and four associate justices. The decisions of the Idaho Supreme Court are binding on all other Idaho state courts. The only court that may revers ...

and the Idaho Court of Appeals. Silak graduated from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, ...

in New York City with a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation and ...

and French literature, then attended the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Fran ...

in Berkeley, earning her

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice l ...

in 1976 from its

School of Law A law school (also known as a law centre or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a lawyer within a given jurisdiction. Law degrees Argentina In Argentina, l ...

(Boalt Hall). After working in private practice in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. and as a U.S. attorney in New York City, she moved west to Idaho, her husband's home state, in 1983. At age 40, Silak was appointed by Governor

Cecil Andrus Cecil Dale Andrus (August 25, 1931 – August 24, 2017) was an American politician who served 26th and 28th governor of Idaho, for total of fourteen years. A Democrat, he also served as U.S. Secretary of the Interior from 1977 to 1981 during th ...

to the Court of Appeals in August 1990, the first woman to serve on Idaho's second-highest court. Less than three years later, she was elevated by Andrus to the state supreme court, succeeding Robert Bakes, and joined Linda Copple Trout as the first two women to serve on it. Silak retained her seat in the statewide election (57.7%) in May 1994, defeating Wayne Kidwell, a future colleague on the court. Six years later, she was unseated by Dan Eismann (58.6%) in May 2000, the only defeat for an incumbent on the court since 1944. The previous autumn, Silak wrote the 3–2 majority opinion that upheld an earlier decision on

wilderness area Wilderness or wildlands (usually in the plural), are natural environments on Earth that have not been significantly modified by human activity or any nonurbanized land not under extensive agricultural cultivation. The term has traditionally re ...

water rights Water right in water law refers to the right of a user to use water from a water source, e.g., a river, stream, pond or source of groundwater. In areas with plentiful water and few users, such systems are generally not complicated or contentio ...

, siding with the

federal government A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-govern ...

, which became a key factor in the election campaign. After the supreme court, Silak was a partner with Hawley, Troxell, Ennis, & Hawley until 2004, when she became president and CEO of the Idaho Community Foundation, a statewide public charity based in Boise. Silak joined Concordia University's School of Law in 2008.

References

External links

Concordia University: Cathy R. SilakIdaho Trial Lawyers Association: Cathy Silak
{{DEFAULTSORT:Silak, Cathy 1950 births Living people 20th-century American judges 20th-century American women lawyers 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American judges California lawyers Idaho lawyers Justices of the Idaho Supreme Court Deans of law schools in the United States Lawyers from Washington, D.C. New York University alumni People from Boise, Idaho UC Berkeley School of Law alumni 20th-century American women judges 21st-century American women judges