Diane W. Wilkins is a graduate of the University of Utah in political science (B.S. ’75,  cum laude) and Law (JD ’78).  She has been a Deputy County Attorney, an Assistant Attorney General, Deputy Chief of Staff to the Governor, and a state level trial judge, all in Utah.  Judge Wilkins has served as Associate Area Legal Counsel in the Pacific Area (2014-2016), assisting in managing the legal work of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the 19 countries of the Pacific Area, and most recently completed service as an International Fellow of the ICLRS in Europe (2017-2019), living in both Brussels, Belgium and later in Strasbourg, France.  That assignment took her to a number of European countries meeting with government officials, judges, scholars, and others interested in the cause of religious liberty and the rule of law.  During her professional career she has served in a variety of leadership roles in governmental, judicial, civic, and religious organizations.

Prior to her appointment to the bench, Judge Wilkins was a founding member of the University of Utah College of Law Alumni Association, a founding member and first President of Women Lawyers of Utah, a member of the Board of Directors of the Salt Lake Community Services Council.  She has been a frequent speaker on issues of child and family law and relations to legal, judicial, and civic groups.  As a judge, she was elected by her peers as Presiding Judge of Utah’s Second District Juvenile Court, and as President of the state-wide Board of Juvenile Court Judges.  She also served as the judicial representative on the Utah Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice.