Lawndale’s Fran Shields is among four new judges in the Philadelphia court system.
Shields and Scott O’Keefe, of Overbrook, were nominated by Gov. Tom Corbett to serve on Municipal Court. Ken Powell, of Chestnut Hill, and Roger Gordon, of Southwest Philadelphia, were nominated to Common Pleas Court.
The Pennsylvania Senate on June 30 unanimously confirmed the four Philadelphians, along with three other nominees to Common Pleas Court, two in Allegheny County and one in York County.
Shields took the oath of office from Municipal Court President Judge Marsha H. Neifield in a private ceremony on July 3.
The new judges will serve until January 2014. To keep their seats, they must be elected in 2013.
Shields lost a 2009 bid for Common Pleas Court.
The new Philadelphia judges replace the following jurists who resigned: Judges Georganne V. Daher and Lydia Kirkland of Municipal Court and Thomas Dempsey and Renee Cardwell Hughes of Common Pleas Court. ••
