FRANKFORT — Kentucky’s newest Supreme Court Justice, Daniel J. Venters of Somerset, charmed a room full of dignitaries on hand to see his official investiture Monday.

“I had some notes to remind me what I wanted to say,” Venters said after he was sworn in by Chief Justice John Minton in the Supreme Court room. “After 24 years on the bench, I should’ve known that putting your notes in your back pocket, you can’t get to them very gracefully.”

Everyone present, fellow justices, Gov. Steve Beshear, U.S. Congressman Hal Rogers – who gave Venters his first job as an assistant commonwealth's attorney – former Supreme Court Justices, constitutional officers, family and well wishers laughed throughout his remarks, seated at the bench in his new robe and delivered without benefit of the notes.

Those who know Venters weren’t surprised at his easy, relaxed demeanor. Those who didn’t obviously liked it.

Venters said he’d never expected to join the state’s highest court when he stood in the same room 32 years ago to be sworn in as an attorney.

“It’s one of those things that happened to you when you’re planning to do other things,” he said. He said he is “honored, proud and flattered” to be named to the court and to be accepted among his fellow justices.

He deflected praise for his lengthy judicial career – he was one of the state’s first district judges when the Judicial Article passed in the late 1970s creating today’s court system – and thanked his wife and law partner, Jane Adams Venters, his mother, Mary Venters, and those who had assisted him in his career, including Rogers.

“When you’re surrounded by good people, you can do good things,” Venters said.

Rogers said he hired Venters as his assistant commonwealth's attorney in the late 1970s, calling Venters a “very capable lawyer, distinguished jurist, a man of impeccable values and a personal friend and former colleague.”

Beshear, paraphrasing Daniel Webster, said Venters has labored 24 years in the “temple of justice and developed a reputation as a legal scholar, a straight-shooter, a fair jurist and a tireless worker.”

Venters served five years as district judge and then 19 as circuit judge in the 28th Circuit of Pulaski, Lincoln and Rockcastle counties. Beshear said he carried one of the highest case loads in the state “without complaint and without short-changing his duty.”

The governor said that record led him to choose Venters from among the three nominees by the judicial nominating commission to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of former Chief Justice Joseph Lambert who was on hand Monday. Venters will serve the final two years of Lambert’s term. He faces no opposition in this fall’s special election after Hyden attorney Leonard Brashear withdrew from the race following Beshear’s appointment of Venters. The Third Supreme Court District includes Adair, Bell, Casey, Clinton, Cumberland, Estill, Garrard, Green, Jackson, Knox, Laurel, Lee, Leslie, Lincoln, Marion, McCreary, Metcalfe, Monroe, Nelson, Pulaski, Rockcastle, Russell, Taylor, Washington, Wayne and Whitley counties.

Beshear said Venters listens and “treats people with respect and dignity and he follows the law.”

He joked that Venters was born in West Virginia and graduated from Ohio State University but then “got smart and moved to Kentucky” where he received his law degree from the University of Kentucky.

Not to be outdone, Venters said when he was a young assistant commonwealth's attorney not long removed from law school, Rogers called him into his office on a Friday afternoon, handed him a case file and told Venters he would argue the case first thing Monday morning. Then Venters told of Beshear inviting him to his office on a Friday to offer him the appointment to the Supreme Court and adding: “By the way, the court meets at 9 a.m. Monday morning and I expect you to be there.”

He also drew laughter when he said he’s accustomed to dissent – from his wife, Jane, whom he called the “north star of my life.”

Justice William Cunningham said Venters has “the temperament to be a great Supreme Court Justice,” and added that “anybody from Somerset, Ky., that gave us a great governor, Edwin Morrow, John Sherman Cooper and Congressman Hal Rogers can’t be all bad.”

Minton said Venters – who has practiced law for the past few years – brings an added and needed layer of experience as a trial lawyer in addition to his many years on the bench. And he praised his work as regional administrative judge.

Venters quoted an admonition from the Old Testament book of Micah to “do justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God – and that is what I will endeavor to do while I’m here.”

RONNIE ELLIS writes for CNHI News Service and is based in Frankfort. He can be reached by e-mail at rellis@cnhi.com.