Culver names Mary Tabor to Iowa Court of Appeals

DES MOINES – Gov. Chet Culver on Wednesday appointed Des Moines attorney Mary Tabor, who currently serves as an assistant state attorney general and directs the criminal appeals division, to the Iowa Court of Appeals.

Tabor will replace appellate court Judge Robert E. Mahan, who is retiring after 31 years of service. 

“There is no better choice to serve on the Iowa Court of Appeals than Mary Tabor,” Culver said in making his fifth appointment to the Iowa Court of Appeals. “Her years of service in the practice of law and in state government demonstrate her deep respect for the people of this state.

“I am particularly impressed with her compassion and commitment to seeing the laws of our state enforced fairly and without prejudice,” Culver added in a statement. “I have the utmost confidence that she will be a strong and valued member of the bench.”

Tabor received her undergraduate degree from the University of Iowa in 1985, and her law degree with high distinction from the University of Iowa College of Law in 1991.

As an undergraduate, she was editor-in-chief of The Daily Iowan. While in law school she was managing editor of the Iowa Law Review and worked as a prosecuting intern for the Johnson County Attorney's Office. Following law school, she served as a staff attorney in the Office of the General Counsel with the Federal Election Commission in Washington, D.C.

In 1993, she returned to Iowa and joined the criminal appeals division of the Iowa Department of Justice under former Attorney General Bonnie Campbell and has served as the division's director since 1999.

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