JEFFERSON CITY — Karen King Mitchell is going from being the chief of the fee office bidding process to a job where she’ll don a black robe.

Gov. Jay Nixon today named his longtime loyalist to a position on the Western District of the Missouri Court of Appeals. Mitchell, currently the director of the Department of Revenue, worked for more than 20 years in the attorney general’s office, rising to the position of chief deputy under Nixon.

She replaces Judge Paul M. Spinden, who retired.

Most recently, Mitchell oversaw Nixon’s initiative to bid out the state’s 163 driver’s license fee offices that were formerly awarded by governor’s to political supporters. Lawmakers this year passed a law requiring the bidding to continue, with preference given to contractors connected to non-profit agencies.

Missouri Republicans have criticized Nixon’s bidding process because some of the fee office bids have been won by Nixon supporters. Others have been won by non-profits or the current providers, including some Republicans.

Mitchell applied for the judge position and was named one of three finalists by the Appellate Judicial Commission that chooses a list of finalists and passes them to the governor.

Mitchell’s bio, from the news release:

In addition to her legal practice in government service, Mitchell has been actively involved in the Missouri Bar and in volunteer efforts that serve the legal community. She was elected to the Board of Governors of the Missouri Bar in 2008 to represent the state’s Western District and serves on the Missouri Supreme Court’s Appellate Practice Committee, to which she was appointed in 2002. Additionally, Mitchell was a leader in the National Association of Attorneys General, assisting newly elected Attorneys General in other states with the transition into office. She is a member of the Elwood L. Thomas Inn of Court.

Mitchell earned a bachelor’s degree and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 1981. She earned her Juris Doctorate from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law in 1984, where she was a member of the Law Review.

In the community, Mitchell serves on the auxiliary of the Heisinger Bluffs Nursing and Life Care Home and is a volunteer member of the House Corporation Board for the Alpha Phi Social Sorority chapter at the University of Missouri. She is an active member of the Saint Andrews Lutheran Church in Columbia, where she lives with her husband, Greg, and son, Sam.