AUGUSTA – Leigh Ingalls Saufley is poised to be not only the first female chief justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, but also the first person to reach the loftiest position in the state court system in such a short time.

A sitting justice on the supreme court, the 47-year-old Portland woman was named Friday by Gov. Angus King as his choice to succeed Daniel E. Wathen, who retired in September to seek the Republican nomination for governor. King nominated Saufley to the supreme court in 1997 and described the jurist as an individual who possesses the combination of skills and experience necessary to lead the court and the state’s judiciary.

“The post of chief justice presents a difficult balance of legal knowledge, administrative ability and serving as the public face of the courts,” King said. “I feel very confident that Justice Saufley is up to this challenge. In addition to her obvious legal skills, Justice Saufley also displays a very warm human side in the courtroom, which shows that she deeply cares about the issues, and most importantly, the people that appear before the court.”

Reached at her office Friday afternoon, Saufley said King’s nomination was both a “surprise” and an “honor,” particularly since she was only beginning to adjust to a supreme court without Wathen.

“Obviously I’m excited and delighted,” she said. “This is a job that I love and I’ve loved working in the trial courts and the law courts, so it’s not a hard thing to work hard and long in a job that’s important to you.”

Only 11 years ago, Saufley was working for the state as deputy attorney general, overseeing legal issues involving the Department of Human Services. She was nominated to a District Court judgeship in 1990 and elevated to Superior Court justice in 1993.

A Portland native, Saufley graduated from the University of Maine School of Law and began her law career in 1980 with the firm of Silsby and Silsby in Ellsworth. In 1981, she served as assistant counsel for the U.S. Veterans Administration for a brief time before becoming an assistant state attorney general in 1981. She is married to William Saufley and the couple have two children.

The governor’s decision came as a surprise to some who speculated King might be inclined to name Justice Robert Clifford, who agreed to serve as interim supreme court chief justice when Wathen made his unexpected leap into Maine politics. Clifford also is the most senior member of the state’s high court, with 15 years’ service.

Members of Maine’s legal community applauded King’s announcement Friday, describing Saufley’s nomination as “exciting” and “groundbreaking.”

“She has truly had a meteoric rise through the ranks,” said Elizabeth Scheffee, a Portland lawyer who serves as president of the Maine Bar Association. “I think she’s wonderful. People really respect her combination of humor and ability to deliver appropriate remedies to the cases in front of her. She is really a rare jurist.”

A talent for breaking complicated disputes down to the bare components at issue also is a trademark of Saufley’s, according to Warren Silver, a Bangor lawyer and member of the Board of Governors of the Maine Trial Lawyers Association.

“She makes it easier on the parties and expedites the judicial process,” Silver said. “She’s an excellent judge who runs a really good courtroom.”

After working with Saufley for the last four years, Wathen said his likely successor is a good scholar of the law who writes extremely well and knows how to research a case.

“I think she’ll do a fine a job,” he said. “Although the administrative part of the job would be new to her, I’m sure she’ll take to it.”

State Sen. Susan Longley, a Liberty lawyer and current candidate for the Democratic nomination to the state’s 2nd Congressional District, served on the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee when Saufley first was nominated to the supreme court in 1997.

Longley said she has watched Saufley’s progress and has heard only glowing compliments about King’s nominee.

“I’ve heard about her work ethic, working nights, weekends and Sundays,” Longley said. “I’ve been reading her decisions and I’ve found her to be wonderfully fair even at times when I thought she might have been tempted to go in other directions. But she gave a thorough review and wrote opinions that I think showed she had proceeded with a very open mind and with lots of research to produce an impressively fair result.”

The judiciary panel is preparing to consider Saufley’s nomination during the week of Dec. 3, according to the governor’s office. With the rendering of the committee’s recommendation, Saufley’s nomination would then proceed on Dec. 6 to the full Maine Senate, where her approval is perceived as highly likely by several veteran lawmakers.

Should Saufley be confirmed as chief justice, Maine would join a fairly elite group of states featuring women at the helm of the highest courts. Those states include Massachusetts, Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, New York, South Carolina and Wisconsin, according to the National Center for State Courts.

“I am aware that this is the first time that a woman jurist has been nominated to the chief justice position” in Maine, Saufley said. “But that was, I think, inevitable, as women have come to the law in numbers similar to those of men. You would expect that at a certain point, the governor would be looking at all competent people and one of us would be there at the right time. I’m just thrilled that the governor thought I was the right one.”