POCATELLO — Idaho Sixth District Judge David Nye, who’s been nominated by President Barack Obama to become a federal judge, is one in a long line of Idaho judges who started at the Merrill & Merrill law firm in Pocatello.

“We do have talented people here, but part of their success is that they wanted to be judges,” said Dave Gallafent, the managing partner at Merrill & Merrill.

On the state level, Merrill & Merrill was the starting place for Judge Steven Dunn, who’s currently a district judge for Idaho’s Sixth Judicial District, and Judge Thomas Clark, the magistrate judge for the Sixth Judicial District.

Nye also joins the ranks of Judge N. Randy Smith, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2007. Smith became fairly well known after a written dissent of the court’s ruling on Proposition 8 in 2012.

For a town as small as Pocatello, the number of prominent state and federal judges who’ve gotten their start here is impressive. More rare is how many of them came from just one law firm, but it is a firm with deep roots in Idaho.

One of the oldest firms in the state, Merrill & Merrill was originally known as Dietrich & Clark before Frank S. Dietrich was appointed as a judge to the U.S. District Court in 1907. The firm was eventually taken over by brothers R.D. and A.L. Merrill and renamed in 1923.

It was passed down to A.L. Merrill’s son W.F. Merrill in 1948, and he stayed with the firm until 1995, when he retired. However, before he left the firm, W.F. Merrill personally worked with Nye, Smith and Dunn — all of whom are now judges.

“W.F. set the standard,” said Gallafent.

According to Gallafent, during their time at Merrill & Merrill, Nye, Smith, Dunn and Clark all specialized in litigation — primarily in civil laws.

“They all worked in civil law, but they’re so talented that were able to pick up the criminal law aspect you need to be a judge,” said Gallafent.

However, Gallafent said being part of a firm dealing in all aspects of the law — civil and criminal — could’ve helped these men as they made the transition from lawyer to judge.

“In a small town like Pocatello, you do tend to cover a lot of things,” said Gallafent.