MONROE — Judge Thomas J. Vale, of Green County Circuit Court, was re-appointed Chief by the Wisconsin Supreme Court as chief judge of the Fifth Judicial Administrative District, effective Aug. 1. 

Vale was first elected to the Green County Circuit Court in 2009 and re-elected in 2015 and 2021. He has been chief judge since 2020 and previously served as deputy chief judge. 

Before joining the court, state officials said, Vale worked in private practice, from 1981 to 2009. Vale holds a bachelor’s degree from UW-Madison and a law degree from Drake University Law School in Des Moines, Iowa. He also is former deputy chief judge of the Fifth Judicial Administrative District.

The chief judge serves a two-year term.

“Working as a team with a deputy chief judge and a professional court administrator, a chief judge manages the flow of cases and meets several times a year with other chief judges as a committee to work on administrative issues of statewide importance,” a supreme court spokesman said, in a statement.