Utah Supreme Court Justice Michael Wilkins, who has served on the high court for 10 years, will retire from the bench next year.

He served for six years on the Utah Court of Appeals until his appointment to the Utah Supreme Court in 2000. Wilkins has announced he will continue to hear cases through November and will formally retire on May 15, 2010, according to Angie Welling, spokeswoman for Gov. Gary Herbert.

Wilkins informed Herbert in a Sept. 11 letter of the justice's future plans.

He received a bachelor's degree and law degree from the University of Utah and then earned an advanced law degree from the University of Virginia.

Wilkins worked as a private attorney in Salt Lake City and served in the U.S. Army as an intelligence analyst and then an intelligence officer. Among other things, he has taught as an adjunct lecturer at the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University. He also has been chosen to speak and teach about a variety of legal topics for various organizations.

He is married to Diane Wilkins, a former 2nd District juvenile judge, who retired last year.

— Linda Thomson