Brent E. Dickson

Brent E. Dickson was appointed to the Indiana Supreme Court in January, 1986, by Governor Robert D. Orr, after seventeen years as a general practice lawyer in Lafayette, Indiana, where he earned certification as a Civil Trial Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy. He was Chief Justice of Indiana from May 15, 2012 to August 18, 2014.
Born in Gary, Indiana, in 1941, he was educated at public schools in Hobart, Indiana; Purdue University (B.S. 1964); and Indiana University's Robert H. McKinney School of Law (J.D. 1968).
Justice Dickson serves as a member of the Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure of the Judicial Conference of the United States. Justice Dickson's writings, speeches, and activities reflect his longstanding interests in fostering attorney civility, preserving and enhancing our jury trial system, developing and encouraging mediation, and promoting the study and application of state constitutional law. He is co-founder of the Sagamore Chapter of the American Inns of Court in Indianapolis, an elected member of the American Law Institute, a registered mediator, and has been an active participant in a host of local, state, and national judicial and legal organizations. For more than ten years, Justice Dickson served as an adjunct professor teaching an evening course in Indiana Constitutional Law at both Indiana University's Maurer School of Law in Bloomington and its Robert H. McKinney School of Law in Indianapolis.
During his tenure he has also served as chair of the Supreme Court Records Management Committee, the Judicial Data Processing Oversight Committee, the Task Force on Access to Court Records, and as the court's liaison to its Disciplinary Commission and Board of Law Examiners.
Justice Dickson and his wife, Jan Aikman Dickson, have three adult sons and nine grandchildren. Mrs. Dickson is founder of the Judicial Family Institute.