David E. Bruns (born September 17, 1959) is a Judge of the

Kansas Court of Appeals Kansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named after the Kansas River, in turn named a ...

Early life and education

Bruns was born September 17, 1959, in

Kansas City, Kansas Kansas City (commonly known as KCK) is the third-most populous city in the U.S. state of Kansas and the county seat of Wyandotte County. It is an inner suburb of the older and more populous Kansas City, Missouri, after which it is named. As ...

. He earned an

Associate of Arts An associate degree or associate's degree is an undergraduate degree awarded after a course of post-secondary study lasting two to three years. It is a level of academic qualification above a high school diploma and below a bachelor's degree ...

in pre-law from

Kansas City Kansas Community College Kansas City Kansas Community College (KCKCC) is a public two year community college in Wyandotte County, Kansas, United States. The college is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, a commission of the North Central Association and the K ...

in 1979 and a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

in education from the

University of Kansas The University of Kansas (KU) is a public research university with its main campus in Lawrence, Kansas, United States. Two branch campuses are in the Kansas City metropolitan area on the Kansas side: the university's medical school and hospital ...

in 1981. He received his

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

with honors from

Washburn University School of Law The Washburn University School of Law is a public law school located on the main campus of Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas. Washburn Law was founded in 1903. The school is accredited by the American Bar Association and has been a member of t ...

in 1984.

Legal career

Upon admission to the practice of law in 1984, he joined the Topeka law firm of Goodell, Stratton, Edmonds and Palmer, LLP, where he became a partner in 1989. In private practice, he primarily handled litigation and health law cases in the state and federal courts of Kansas and Missouri.

State court service

In September 1999, Governor

Bill Graves William Preston Graves (born January 9, 1953) is an American former politician who was the 43rd governor of Kansas from 1995 until 2003. Career Graves was born in Salina, Kansas, to parents who owned a trucking firm. After graduating from Ka ...

appointed him to serve as judge of the District Court of Shawnee County, Kansas. Judge Bruns was subsequently retained in office by the voters of Shawnee County in 2000, 2004 and 2008. As a trial court judge, he presided over a variety of cases, including the first grand jury convened in Shawnee County in more than 10 years and a multistate class action lawsuit involving one of the largest management-led buyouts in corporate history.

Appointment to Kansas Court of Appeals

He was appointed to the court by Governor

Sam Brownback Samuel Dale Brownback (born September 12, 1956) is an American attorney, politician, and diplomat who served as a United States Senate, United States senator from Kansas from 1996 to 2011 and as the List of governors of Kansas, 46th governor of K ...

on April 15, 2011. He was officially sworn in on June 3, 2011. Bruns was retained in office by the voters of Kansas in the 2012 and 2016 general elections. Since joining the appellate court in June 2011, Judge Bruns has authored more than 500 opinions.

Personal

Bruns and his wife, Shawn, have been married for more than 35 years. They have two adult children, a daughter-in-law, and a granddaughter.

References

External links

Official Biography on Kansas Judicial Branch website
* Living people 1959 births 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American lawyers 21st-century American judges Kansas Court of Appeals judges Kansas lawyers Kansas state court judges People from Kansas City, Kansas University of Kansas alumni Washburn University alumni {{Kansas-state-judge-stub