Jennifer Lint was sworn in as Judge for Department #2 of the 21st Judicial District in Ravalli County on September 24. She was appointed by Governor Steve Bullock to replace Judge James Haynes who retired effective July 30. She will serve out the remainder of his term which expires in 2020.
A graduate of the University of Montana Law School, Lint was admitted to the Bar in October 1997 after which she clerked for District Court Judge Jeffrey Langton for two years. The position is now called “judicial staff attorney” and involved preparing bench briefs if there was going to be a contested hearing or potentially a trial of oral argument, and presenting a condensed bullet-point list of the relevant issues in the case and the laws that apply.
“It’s definitely a ‘hit the ground running’ situation,” she said, sitting in front of a box full of files that she had to review for her first Law and Motion day on Thursday. Judge Langton has been shouldering the entire load for the last seven weeks and Boatwright-Lint expressed her appreciation for what he did.
“He did an excellent job of getting his decisions out and anything he could finish up, he did finish up,” she said. “He did a really good job in not leaving a huge snow pile on me.”
Asked how she felt about being the first female district court judge in Ravalli County history, she said, “What’s meaningful to me is that the governor thought I was the most qualified choice regardless of gender.”
Asked if she had faced any gender issues in her tenure as a private attorney working in Ravalli County, she said, “I have to say, and I said this to the governor in my interview with him, I’ve been here as an acting and practicing attorney since 1999 and dealt with female and male lawyers on either side and never once have any of those male lawyers treated me any differently because I was a female.” She said it may not be like that everywhere, but here this was certainly her experience.
Lint said that she was very much looking forward to her new job.
“It’s a service position,” she said, “and you serve at the pleasure of the community for as long as they support you, either for an appointment or in the general election.”