Roger Leland Wollman (born May 29, 1934) is a

Senior Senior (shortened as Sr.) means "the elder" in Latin and is often used as a suffix for the elder of two or more people in the same family with the same given name, usually a parent or grandparent. It may also refer to: * Senior (name), a surname ...

United States Circuit Judge and former Chief Judge of the

United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit (in case citations, 8th Cir.) is a United States federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the following United States district courts: * Eastern District of Arkansas * Western Dist ...

. He is the older brother of Harvey L. Wollman, former

Governor of South Dakota The governor of South Dakota is the head of government of South Dakota. The governor is elected to a four-year term in even years when there is no presidential election. The current governor is Kristi Noem, a member of the Republican Party who t ...

Early life and education

Born in Frankfort,

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota and Dakota Sioux Native American tribes, who comprise a large po ...

, Roger's parents were Edwin J. Wollman (1907–1981) and Katherine (Kleinsasser) Wollman (1905–2002). His ancestors were ethnic Germans living in Russia and Wollman grew up

Mennonite Mennonites are groups of Anabaptist Christian church communities of denominations. The name is derived from the founder of the movement, Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland. Through his writings about Reformed Christianity during the R ...

. He attended Doland High School. Wollman received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

degree from Tabor College in 1957. He was in the

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from 1957 to 1959. He then attended the

University of South Dakota School of Law The University of South Dakota School of Law also known as University of South Dakota Knudson School of Law or USD Law in Vermillion, South Dakota, United States, is a professional school of the University of South Dakota and the only law school in ...

, graduating magna cum laude in 1962 with a

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice l ...

. In 1964, he received a

Master of Laws A Master of Laws (M.L. or LL.M.; Latin: ' or ') is an advanced postgraduate academic degree, pursued by those either holding an undergraduate academic law degree, a professional law degree, or an undergraduate degree in a related subject. In mo ...

from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each c ...

Early career

Wollman began his career as a judicial law clerk to Judge George T. Mickelson of the

United States District Court for the District of South Dakota The United States District Court for the District of South Dakota (in case citations, D.S.D.) is the United States District Court or the Federal district court, whose jurisdiction for issues pertaining to federal law or diversity for the state of ...

from 1962 to 1963. He was in private practice of law in

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, South Dakota, from 1964 to 1971, and served as a State's attorney of

Brown County, South Dakota Brown County is a county in the U.S. state of South Dakota. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 38,301, making it the fourth-most populous county in South Dakota. Its county seat is Aberdeen. The county is named for Alfred Br ...

, (in Aberdeen) from 1967 to 1971. Wollman served for fifteen years on the Supreme Court of South Dakota, including as chief justice from 1978 to 1982.

Federal judicial service

Wollman was nominated by President

Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson Reagan ( ; February 6, 1911June 5, 2004) was an American politician, actor, and union leader who served as the 40th president of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He also served as the 33rd governor of California from 1967 ...

on June 25, 1985, to the

, to a new seat created by 98 Stat. 333. South Dakota senior senator

Larry Pressler Larry Lee Pressler (born March 29, 1942) is an American lawyer and politician from South Dakota who served in the United States House of Representatives (1975–1979) and United States Senate (1979–1997) as a Republican. He remained active in ...

worked with the White House to secure this nomination, and recommended Wollman as a conservative judge. He was the first South Dakotan on that court in 25 years. Wollman was confirmed by the

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on July 19, 1985, and he received his commission on July 22, 1985. From 1999 to 2002, Wollman served as Chief Judge. Wollman maintains his chambers in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Among his judicial law clerks that worked under him include Ron A. Parsons Jr. and his successor Jonathan A. Kobes. On February 9, 2018, Wollman notified President

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that he intended to step down as an active judge no later than the end of 2018. He assumed

senior status Senior status is a form of semi- retirement for United States federal judges. To qualify, a judge in the federal court system must be at least 65 years old, and the sum of the judge's age and years of service as a federal judge must be at leas ...

on December 14, 2018, upon the confirmation of his successor and former clerk, Jonathan A. Kobes.

Cases

* '' United States v. Neil Scott Kramer''

References

Sources

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wollman, Roger Leland 1934 births 20th-century American judges American Mennonites American people of German-Russian descent Chief Justices of the South Dakota Supreme Court Harvard Law School alumni Judges of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit Living people Military personnel from South Dakota People from Spink County, South Dakota Politicians from Sioux Falls, South Dakota South Dakota lawyers Justices of the South Dakota Supreme Court United States court of appeals judges appointed by Ronald Reagan University of South Dakota School of Law alumni