It’s official: Deputy Attorney General Monica M. Marquez is Gov. Bill Ritter’s choice for a vacancy on the Colorado Supreme Court.

Here’s the press release:

GOV. RITTER APPOINTS NEW JUSTICE TO COLORADO SUPREME COURT

Gov. Bill Ritter today appointed Monica Marie Marquez, a 41-year-old deputy attorney general, to the Colorado Supreme Court. The appointment to the seven-member court is effective Nov. 30, when Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey retires after 23 years on the bench.

“Today I am pleased to select Deputy Attorney General Monica Marquez to serve on Colorado’s highest court,” Gov. Ritter said. “Monica is an analytical and independent thinker. She has a wealth of personal and professional experiences, and a deep reverence for the role our legal system plays in the everyday lives of Coloradans, and in the inter-relationship between our courts and public policy. She respects the rule of law, is conscientious and will bring an unbiased and just perspective to the court and all the cases that it hears.

“Naming a new Supreme Court justice is a tremendous responsibility and privilege,” the Governor said. “I had three exemplary choices and a difficult decision to make. While Chief Justice Mullarkey leaves behind an irreplaceable legacy, I am confident Monica Marquez will serve the people of Colorado with distinction, honor and integrity.”  

Marquez leads the State Services Section of the Attorney General’s Office, which represents nine of the 16 executive branch agencies in Colorado. She specializes in appellate litigation and has represented the state, in both state and federal appellate courts, in cases involving fiscal policy, education, healthcare, elections, redistricting and campaign finance.

“I am both humbled and deeply honored to be appointed to the Colorado Supreme Court,” Marquez said. “I look forward to serving the State of Colorado in this new capacity, and I promise to bring an exceptional work ethic, a collaborative spirit, an open mind, and a reverence for the rule of law.”

Prior to joining the Attorney General’s Office in 2002, she was an associate at the law firm Holme Roberts & Owen and a judicial clerk for two federal court judges.

After graduating from Grand Junction High School in 1987, Marquez earned her bachelor’s degree from Stanford University in 1991 and her law degree in 1997 from Yale Law School, where she was an editor of the Yale Law Journal.

Before attending law school, Marquez taught and worked with inner-city youth in Camden, N.J., and Philadelphia with the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and St. Carthage Catholic School.

She currently serves on the boards of the Colorado Hispanic Bar Association and the Colorado GLBT Bar Association.

The current salary for a Supreme Court justice is $139,660 a year. Marquez will serve for a provisional term of two years. If retained by voters, she will then serve a 10-year term.

Here’s a profile my Denver Post colleague Felisa Cardona wrote on Marquez earlier this month.