State Bar Honors Kase, Reed

Mountain Mail Reports

Socorroans Edmund “Ted” Kase was recognized as the “Longest Serving Judge” and Lauren Reed was recognized as the “Youngest Active Member,” by the New Mexico State Bar Association last week.
Kase also celebrated 50 years in the State Bar and interestingly Reed frequently appears before Kase in his 7th Judicial District Court.
Reed, 25, graduated from the University of New Mexico School of Law in May 2009 and was sworn in as a member of the State Bar of New Mexico that September. She currently works at Deschamps & Kortemeier Law Offices, P.C. in Socorro.
Kase earned his undergraduate degree at Princeton University and his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1956. After graduation, he took the Colorado bar exam and, while waiting for the results, visited his parents in Socorro.
At the encouragement of a local judge, he took the three-day New Mexico bar exam and learned on the fourth day that he had passed.
Kase worked in private practice before becoming an assistant district attorney. For the next six years, he handled cases in Socorro, Torrance and Catron counties. Then in 1971 he was appointed by Governor Bruce King to fill the unexpired term of District Judge Garnett R. Burks, Sr., who had resigned due to illness. He served for seven consecutive six-year terms as district judge for the 7th Judicial District. He has been on the bench for 38 years, making him the longest serving judge in New Mexico.

State Bar Honors Kase, Reed