Noma Gurich
Oklahoma Supreme Court
Justice Noma Diane Gurich was born on September 26, 1952 in South Bend, Indiana. Although she is a Hoosier by birth, she is a resident of Oklahoma by choice. Justice Gurich’s great grandparents settled near Gracemont, Oklahoma in1904. Her grandmother and grandfather were married on December 24, 1906 in Anadarko. Her mother was born in Anadarko in 1921. She resided in Oklahoma until 1945, when she and her husband, a returning veteran of World War II, moved to Indiana.
Justice Gurich is a 1971 honors graduate of Penn High School in Mishawaka, Indiana. In 2012, she was honored as a Distinguished Alumni of her high school. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Indiana State University, Terre Haute, Indiana in 1975 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and a minor in History. Justice Gurich is a life member of the Indiana State University Alumni Association. In October of 2012, she will be honored as a Distinguished Alumni of Indiana State. In 1978, Justice Gurich received her Juris Doctorate degree from the College of Law of the University of Oklahoma. While at OU, she was an editor of the American Indian Law Review and received the Professional Responsibility Award. In 2011, OU College of Law Chapter of the Order of the Coif academic society selected her as an honorary member.
Justice Noma D. Gurich has been a judge in the state of Oklahoma for over 24 years. Justice Gurich has the unique distinction of having been appointed to a judicial office by four (4) Governors of Oklahoma, after being nominated by the constitutionally created Judicial Nominating Commission.
Her first appointment came in 1988. She was appointed by Governor Henry Bellmon to serve a six-year term in July of 1988 on the Oklahoma Workers’ Compensation Court. Governor Bellmon appointed her to the position of Presiding Judge for two terms: January 1989 until January 1, 1993.
- Justice
- Oklahoma Supreme Court
- - Current
- Judge, Presiding Judge
- Office 13, Seventh Judicial District, Oklahoma County
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- Presiding Administrative Judge 2003-2004
- Judge, Presiding Judge
- Oklahoma Workers’ Compensation Court
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- Advisory member of the Special Joint Interim Study Committee on Workers’ Compensation Reform: 1989-1990; the Workers’ Compensation Medical Cost Containment Task Force: 1992-1993; and the Lt. Governor Mary Fallin Commission: 1996-1997.
- Attorney
- Abowitz & Welch
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- Attorney
- Cheek, Cheek & Cheek
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- Indiana State University
- B.A. | Political Science
- Honors: Magna Cum Laude
- University of Oklahoma College of Law
- J.D. (1978)
- Honors: Professional Responsibility Award
- Activities: editor of the American Indian Law Review
- Woman of the Year Circle of Excellence
- Journal Record
- Mona Salyer Lambird Spotlight Award
- OBA Women in Law Committee
- Honoree for Woman of the Year
- Journal Record
- 2005, 2008, 2011
- American Bar Association, Oklahoma Bar Association, Oklahoma County Bar Association, Oklahoma Judicial Conference,
- Member
- Current
- Oklahoma Bar Foundation
- Fellow
- Current
- William J. Holloway, Jr. American Inn of Court
- Master member
- Current
- Activities: Past President (2007-08)
- Court on the Judiciary
- Trial division member
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