Johnson County voters will decide Tuesday, Nov. 3, whether to retain District Court Judge Michael P. Joyce. Joyce holds the District 10, Division 15 seat on the Johnson County District Court.
The Leawood resident has served on the bench since Governor Sam Brownback appointed him in 2012, according to the court's judicial profile. The nonpartisan retention race is certified for the ballot, according to BallotReady election data.
Candidate information
- Residence: Leawood, Kansas
- Born: 1960, Omaha, Nebraska
- Education: Bachelor's degree from Creighton University (1982); juris doctor from University of Houston Law (1988); master's in judicial studies from University of Nevada (2022)
- Appointed: Oct. 24, 2012, by Governor Sam Brownback
Experience and public service
Before joining the bench, Joyce worked at several Kansas City-area law firms. He practiced at Koenigsdorf & Wyrsch and Wyrsch, Hobbs, Mirakian & Lee from 1988 to 1997, according to BallotReady profile data. He then founded the Joyce Law Firm, where he practiced from 1997 to 2000. He later joined Van Osdol, Magruder, Erickson & Redmond, where he worked from 2000 until his 2012 appointment.
Joyce also taught criminal sentencing at the University of Missouri-Kansas City Law School from 1997 to 2001, according to the court's judicial profile.
He has co-chaired the Johnson County Bar Association's Community Outreach Committee since 2009. He served on the board of directors for the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association in 2007 and co-chaired its Bar Leadership Academy in 2004-2005.
Joyce is a member of the Guardianship and Conservatorship Advisory Committee and contributed to Kansas's updated guardianship law, according to a Johnson County government publication.
Professional recognition
Joyce was rated AV Preeminent by Martindale-Hubbell, according to the court's judicial profile. He was named a "Super Lawyer" by Law & Politics/KC Magazine's Super Lawyers Magazine from 2008 to 2012, a designation given to the top 5% of lawyers in Kansas and Missouri. He received the President's Award from the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association in 2000.
His retention support has grown. In the Johnson County Bar Association's most recent judicial evaluation survey in 2022, 80% of 124 responding attorneys said Joyce should be retained. That compared with 60% of 127 respondents in 2020, 64% of 143 respondents in 2018 and 65% of 204 respondents in 2016.
On the issues
No issue responses from Joyce were available for this profile.
Candidate information was drawn from the Johnson County District Court's judicial profile, the Johnson County Bar Association's judicial evaluations, Johnson County government publications and BallotReady. The Overland Park Chronicle did not interview the candidate for this profile.
