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Biography of Diana Dowling

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Biography of Diana Dowling

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Biography

Diana Schutte Dowling, is a Greybull, Wyoming native, graduate of Carroll College, and long-time Helena resident.

Diana was one of Montana’s trail-blazing female lawyers and began her public service as:

  • · legislative drafting attorney for Governor Forrest Anderson in 1969, and
  • · staff attorney for the Anderson’s Executive Reorganization Commission, where she helped draft the 1971 legislation that established the executive branch structure that is substantially in place today.

Diana worked for the Montana Legislative Council for 20 years, including serving as:

  • · Director of Legal Services,
  • · Code Commissioner (where she supervised the complete recodification of the Revised Codes of Montana, 1947 - an alphabetical code containing over 3 million words, previously codified and published out-of-state – which resulted in the Montana Legislature adopting the new Montana Code Annotated in 1979. The MCA is a topical arrangement of Montana laws, which Montana legislative staff now annotates and publishes in-house, and
  • · Executive Director from 1978 to 1986.

Diana also was:

  • · Executive Director of the Montana Bar Association (1972 – 1974),
  • · first Director of the Montana Lottery,
  • · commissioner on the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (12 years),
  • · member of the Montana Board of Bar Examiners (7 years),
  • · counsel to the Style and Drafting Committee for Montana’s 1972 Constitutional Convention (where she prepared and directed publication of official explanation of the new Constitution that was mailed to all Montana voters), and
  • · first Secretary-treasurer of the unified State Bar of Montana.

Diana has been:

  • · adjunct professor at both Carroll College and the UM Law School,
  • · an administrative officer for Falcon Press Publishing Co.

Diana is currently - and intends to continue being - a perpetual college student.

She has been married to Tom Dowling (also an attorney and long-time Lewis & Clark County Attorney) since 1958. They have five children and nine grandchildren.

Publication Date

Fall 2015

Biography of Diana Dowling

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