David Odekirk has been appointed chief judge of the First Judicial District of Iowa, the Iowa Judicial Branch announced. Odekirk, currently a district court judge, succeeds Kellyann Lekar, who will retire July 8. Odekirk, who was appointed to the district bench in 2014, will begin serving as chief judge July 9. Prior to becoming a judge, Odekirk was a lawyer in Waterloo. He received his bachelor’s degree from the University of Iowa in 1989 and his law degree from the University of Iowa College of Law in 1993. The First Judicial District includes the counties of Allamakee, Black Hawk, Buchanan, Chickasaw, Clayton, Delaware, Dubuque, Fayette, Grundy, Howard and Winneshiek. The district has 14 district court judges, 10 district associate court judges, two senior judges, 17 part-time magistrates, 27 juvenile court officers and 121 employees with an operating budget for the current fiscal year of about $20 million. More than 81,000 cases were initiated or reopened in the First Judicial District in 2025.