Hatfield, a Great Falls native, Korean War veteran and University of Montana law school graduate, was a lawyer in private practice, chief deputy Cascade County attorney and a state district judge before his election in 1976 as chief justice of the Montana Supreme Court. Hatfield was a past president of the Montana Trial Judges Association and Montana Judges Association. He worked on drafting the judicial section of the new Montana constitution during the state's Constitutional Convention. That portion of the constitution provided for reforms including the judicial nominating committee and judicial removal committee. The first chairman of the first Montana Office of Equal Opportunity, Hatfield also was chairman of the Sentence Review Division of the Montana Supreme Court until 1975.
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