Deanell Reece Tacha

Deanell Reece Tacha (born January 26, 1946) is a retired United States circuit judge who served on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. She was the Dean of the Pepperdine University School of Law from 2011 to 2016. Education and career Born in Goodland, Kansas, Tacha received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Kansas in 1968 and a Juris Doctor from the University of Michigan Law School in 1971. She was a White House Fellow and special assistant to the Secretary of Labor at the United States Department of Labor from 1971 to 1972. She was in private practice in Washington, D.C., and Concordia, Kansas, from 1973 to 1974. She then served as Director of the Douglas County Legal Aid Clinic in Lawrence, Kansas, until 1977. She was also on the faculty of the University of Kansas School of Law from 1974 to 1985. Federal judicial service