Conference Presenters

Chief Justice Steven R. Jensen
South Dakota Supreme Court

Chief Justice Steven R. Jensen was appointed to the South Dakota Supreme Court and sworn in on Nov. 3, 2017. Chief Justice Jensen was selected by his colleagues on the Court to serve as Chief Justice beginning in January 2021. He was reselected to a second, four-year term as Chief Justice beginning Jan. 6, 2025. Chief Justice Jensen grew up on a farm near Wakonda, S.D. He received his undergraduate degree from Bethel University in St. Paul, Minn., in 1985 and his juris doctor from the University of South Dakota School of Law in 1988. He clerked for Justice Richard W. Sabers on the South Dakota Supreme Court before entering private practice in 1989 with the Crary Huff Law Firm in Sioux City, Iowa, and Dakota Dunes, S.D. In 2003, Justice Jensen was appointed as a First Judicial Circuit judge and became presiding judge in 2011. Chief Justice Jensen served as chair of the Unified Judicial System’s Presiding Judges Council, president of the South Dakota Judges Association, and has served on other boards and commission. In 2009, Chief Justice Jensen was appointed as a Judicial Fellow to the Advanced Science and Technology Adjudication Resource Center in Washington D.C.

Greg Sattizahn
State Court Administrator, South Dakota Unified Judicial System

Greg Sattizahn is the state court administrator/general counsel for the South Dakota Unified Judicial System (UJS). Greg was appointed state court administrator on Sept. 9, 2013. Prior to his appointment, he first began work with UJS as a South Dakota Supreme Court law clerk for the Honorable Justice Richard W. Sabers. Following his clerkship, Greg practiced law for a private law firm and then returned to UJS as a staff attorney for the South Dakota Supreme Court. He subsequently served as the UJS legal and legislative counsel and then the director of policy and legal services.