A judicial nominating commission for Douglas County soon will take applications to replace District Court Judge Stephen Six, who Gov. Kathleen Sebelius named this morning as Kansas attorney general.

Until an official replacement is sworn in, William Lyle, a retired district judge from Reno County in Hutchinson, will help handle the caseload in Douglas County, said Ron Keefover, a Kansas Judicial Branch spokesman.

The county’s administrative judge issued a congratulatory statement to Six this morning.

“He is an excellent choice for the position. He will bring the utmost integrity, diligence, intelligence and wisdom to that office,” Douglas County Chief Judge Robert Fairchild said in a written statement. “At the same time, Judge Six’s appointment as attorney general is a great loss for our judicial district.”

Fairchild, who is out of town due to a family illness, said Six was well-liked by judicial colleagues and court staff.

The nominating commission will begin taking applications soon, Keefover said. Eventually its members will conduct interviews and send two or three names to Sebelius, who will appoint one person from the list.

Kansas Supreme Court Justice Eric Rosen will organize the process, and he is a nonvoting chairman for the commission.

The commission is made up of three Douglas County lawyers – Ed Collister Jr., John W. Nitcher and Janine A. Cox. Also, the three nonlawyers on the panel are Kurt von Achen of Eudora and John Frick and Milton Scott, of Lawrence.

Sebelius appointed Six to fill the county’s newest judgeship in 2005.

During that selection process, the commission sent to Sebelius the names of Six, Peggy C. Kittel, a judge pro tem in Douglas County, and James George, a Lawrence defense attorney who also has worked as a small-claims court judge.

Fairchild said the process for selecting Six’s replacement could take three to four months.