Louise Dovre Bjorkman graduated from Moorhead High School in 1978. During high school she was active in concert band, concert orchestra, drama, Z Club, and the U.S. Bank junior board of directors, and she was valedictorian of her class. Bjorkman graduated magna cum laude with a political science degree from Luther College in 1982. She received the college’s Distinguished Alumni Service Award in 2002. Bjorkman earned her Juris Doctorate from the University of Minnesota Law School where she was a writer and editor of the Law Review.

From 1985-98, Bjorkman was a partner and attorney with Rider, Bennett, Egan & Arundel. She was appointed to the Second Judicial District Court in September 1998 by Governor Arne Carlson. She was elected in 2000 and served until 2005. From 2000-02 she was Lead Judge in the Civil Division and from 2004-05 she was the Juvenile Drug Court Coordinating Judge. From 2005-08, Bjorkman worked as a partner at Larson King, L.L.P. In June 2008, she was appointed to the Minnesota Court of Appeals by Governor Tim Pawlenty. Her current term expires Jan. 3, 2011.

Bjorkman is a member of the American Bar Association, Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section and has held leadership roles, including serving as a Leadership Academy Task Force Member, as chair of the Public Relations Committee in 2007-08, and as chair of the Appellate Advocacy Committee in 1999-2000. She is an American Bar Foundation Fellow, a leader in the Judiciary Committee and Appellate Practice Section of the Minnesota State Bar Association, and a member of the Minnesota Women Lawyer’s Advisory Committee and Minnesota Supreme Court Appellate Rules Committee.

Bjorkman serves on the Luther College Presidentsrad (Advisory Board) and Friends of the Guidant John Rose Oval Foundation Board. She served on the Council on Crime and Justice Board from 2007 to August 2008 and the Girl Scout Council of St. Croix Valley as vice president from 2003-07 and director from 2000-07. Bjorkman sings in her church choir and volunteers with the Everybody Wins Reading Program at Benjamin E. Mays Elementary School in St. Paul.

Louise and her husband, John, live in Roseville, Minnesota. They have a 13-year-old daughter, Erika.

Update: Louise Bjorkman was re-elected to the Minnesota Court of Appeals in 2016. Her current term expires January 2023. In March 2018, Governor Mark Dayton appointed Bjorkman to the Board on Judicial Standards.