Kathleen Lang was appointed Judge of LaPorte Superior Court 1 September 2005. As Judge of Superior Court 1, her case load includes major felony criminal cases, family law, civil litigation, estates, guardianships, and mental health. She is currently developing a re-entry court for offenders returning from the Department of Correction. This program is designed to provide more intensive supervision of these offenders and to aid their transition back into the community.
Before her appointment as Judge in Superior Court 1, Judge Lang served as a Magistrate and Probate Commissioner in LaPorte Circuit Court and as the Administrative Hearing Judge for LaPorte housing court. As Magistrate, she heard cases involving juveniles, including school discipline cases. Judge Lang supervised the development of Project Map, and the Day Reporting Programs, providing schools with an alternative to suspension and expulsion, and Project SAFE, designed to identify at-risk youth. She has been a speaker at numerous conferences throughout the country on juvenile issues.
Prior to becoming a judge, Judge Lang was a prosecutor in both LaPorte County, Indiana, and Chicago, Illinois. Her work as a prosecutor included extensive jury and bench trial experience, numerous arguments in the Illinois Supreme and Appellate Courts, and death penalty litigation on both the trial and appellate levels, including the United States Supreme Court. Her trial experience consists of capital murder, sex offenses, child abuse, property, and other crimes of violence. In addition to trial work, she was involved with police training and the development of a multi-disciplinary protocol for sexual assault cases in LaPorte County. She has also worked with the International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program designed to teach techniques for the investigation and prosecution of sexual assault cases in developing nations. She has also been a featured speaker on various topics including attorney ethics, capital litigation, and depositions in criminal cases.
Judge Lang has been an adjunct professor at Valparaiso University School of Law and is currently on the faculty of the National Institute of Trial Advocacy. In addition, she taught trial skills at Emory Law School and at the National Justice Center at the University of South Carolina School of Law. She has also lectured for the Chicago Bar Association, and Purdue and Indiana State Universities. Before attending law school she taught high school music on the south side of Chicago.
Locally, Judge Lang is a current or past Board member of Dunebrook Prevent Child Abuse LaPorte County, LaPorte County Symphony Orchestra, LaPorte County Community Corrections, LaPorte Regional Health Systems, the LaPorte Hospital Foundation, the HOPE (Helping Our People Excel) Advisory Board. She has also served on the Healthy Families LaPorte County Advisory Council, the LaPorte County Youth Development Task Force, and as a Volunteer Legal Counsel for LaPorte Habitat for Humanity.
In 2005, Judge Lang was awarded the LaPorte Chamber of Commerce Athena Award and was the Indiana Correctional Association Judge of the Year. Last year she received the Cliff Arnold Award for public service from the Michigan City Lion’s Club. She has also been awarded the President's Youth Service Award by President Bill Clinton for her work with the Teen Court Program. Kathleen, her husband Alan, and their two children, Andrew, age 16, and Kristen, age 14, live in LaPorte County. She is a member of the LaPorte County Symphony Orchestra and the Michigan City Municipal Band, and plays both the French horn and the bagpipes.
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