Linda Strite Murnane currently served as an Associate Justice on the High Court of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, returning to the U.S. and to private practice in November 2024. She served 29.5 years on active duty in the United States Air Force, enlisting as an E-1 and retiring as the Chief Circuit Military Judge for the Eastern Circuit, Washington, D.C. as an O-6 (Colonel) in 2004. Since retiring from the Air Force, she spent eight years working in senior level positions with the United Nations at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and Special Tribunal for Lebanon, and one year as the Senior International Attorney for the Defense Institute for International Legal Studies, Newport, RI. She served two years as the Executive Director of the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights. She also served as a felony prosecutor, worked with Lexis-Nexis and was in private practice in the estate and trust field. She is a past chair of the ABA Judicial Division, and serves on the board of the FBA International Law Section, the American Judges Association, and the National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ). She has served on the ABA Board of Governors since September 2024.
She has won numerous awards for her public service, including the ABA Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award, the ABA Mayre Rasmussen Award from the ABA International Law Section and the Ohio State Bar Association’s Nettie Cronise Lutes Award (both for advancing opportunities for women in the field of law), and the NAWJ Justice Vano Spencer and Judge Mattie Belle Davis Awards. She has been inducted into the Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame and the Greene County, Ohio Veterans Hall of Fame.
Her highest military decoration is the Legion of Merit.
Justice Murnane assists veterans pro bono in applying for their VA benefits and also serves as the Mentor Coordinator for the ABA’s Afghan Legal Professionals Scholarship and Mentoring Program.