Leigh Anne Hiatt, Information Officer, AOC
Friday, January 18, 2013 3:58 pm
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(Frankfort, KY January 17, 2013) - After more than twenty-nine years of judicial service, Justice Wil Schroder has decided to retire from the Supreme Court of Kentucky. Justice Schroder was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor and retiring will allow him to focus on his health and to spend more time with his family.
Justice Wil Schroder was elected to the Supreme Court of Kentucky in November 2006 to serve the 6th Supreme Court District. Justice Schroder has more than 29 years of judicial service. He served on the Kentucky Court of Appeals for more than 15 years (1991 to 2006). He also served as a trial judge on the Kenton District Court for almost eight years (1983 to 1991), which included one year as a juvenile judge.
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Minter said of his colleague "I am very sorry to learn of the retirement of my colleague and dear friend Wil Schroder. Wil is highly ethical and is known for standing by his convictions. He brought a sharp intellect and meticulous approach to his work on the Supreme Court. He felt obligated every day to work hard on behalf of the people in his district and the state. The Supreme Court will not be the same without him.”
Justice Schroder earned his bachelor's degree in 1968 and his juris doctor in 1970 from the University Of Kentucky. He also earned an advanced law degree, LL.M., in 1971 from the University Of Missouri at Kansas City. Justice Schroder was admitted to the Kentucky Bar in 1970, the Missouri Bar in 1972 and the United States Supreme Court Bar in 1974.
In the early 1970s, while completing his advanced law degree at the University Of Missouri, Justice Schroder worked as an attorney for the Kansas City Legal Aid Society and as a corporate attorney for the St. Paul Insurance Company. Upon returning to Kentucky, he became an assistant law professor at Northern Kentucky University Salmon P. Chase College Of Law (1972 to 1975) during the first three years the college operated as a Kentucky-based institution.
Justice Schroder was in private practice (1975 to 1983) in Covington with his brother, Robert, where he represented the Northern Kentucky Area Planning Commission and served as a contract attorney for the Special Fund of the Division of Workers' Compensation and as a Kenton County public defender. He also served as a hearing officer for the Kentucky Personnel Board and was appointed city attorney for Newport, Ky., (1982 to 1983) during the onset of Newport's early riverfront development.
Justice Schroder was born in 1946 in Fort Mitchell, where he and his wife, Susan Wahlbrink Schroder, reside. He is the father to two daughters, Stephanie and Lydia, and a son, Wil.