Linda Neuman is a 2015 inductee into the Iowa Women’s Hall of Fame. In 1980, Neuman became the first woman to serve as a part-time judicial magistrate in Scott County. In 1982, she was appointed by Iowa Gov. Robert D. Ray to serve as a district court judge for the 7th Judicial District of Iowa, only the second woman in Iowa history to be appointed to such a position. Finally, in 1986, after several years as a trial judge, she was appointed by Gov. Terry Branstad to the Iowa Supreme Court, the first woman in its 150-year history to serve as a member of the court.

 

Where she’s been

Neuman was born in Chicago in 1948. Upon graduation from law school in 1973, she and her husband, Henry, moved to Iowa to establish a permanent home and raise their family. They went to work at Betty, Neuman, McMahon, Hellstrom & Bittner, a law firm established in 1906, where Henry’s father was a partner. Neuman retired from the Supreme Court in 2003. She returned to private practice, where she has focused on mediation and arbitration. She also joined the adjunct faculty of the University of Iowa Law School, where she taught courses on professional ethics, appellate court practice and procedure, and designed and taught a course for law students serving as judicial interns in the state and federal courts.

 

Connection points

Throughout her career Neuman has devoted herself to professional and civic organizations, both in her community and nationally. She has represented Iowa as a director of the National Association of Women Judges, the Judicial Division of the American Bar Association, and the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws. In 2014 she received a President’s Award for her service to the Iowa State Bar Association.  

 

Closer to home she served on many boards, including the Quad-Cities United Way, Edgerton Maternal Health Center, Marriage and Family Counseling Service and served 15 years as a trustee of St. Ambrose University. She is currently a director on the boards of the Community Foundation of the Great River Bend, Quad-City Bank and Trust, and QCR Holdings. She serves pro bono as counsel to the Episcopal Diocese of Iowa and has also held many leadership positions in her church, and volunteers as a reader for the blind on Augustana Public Radio Information Service. 

 

Contact her

Find her on LinkedIn.

 

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