After four years as a Marine Corps combat engineering officer and 20 years as a trial attorney in Kansas’s state and federal courts, Lawton Nuss was appointed to the Kansas Supreme Court in 2002. In 2010 he became chief justice.

For the next 10 years, Chief Justice Nuss led the Supreme Court in exercising administrative authority over all courts in Kansas. His leadership was commended at both the national and state levels, highlighted by an invitation to make a leadership presentation to his peers at the National Conference of Chief Justices.

In December 2019, Nuss retired mid-term so he could devote more time to help his fellow veterans. In addition to analyzing the Model Veterans Treatment Court Act in an article published by the University of Missouri-Kansas City Law Review, he serves as chair of the board of the Veterans Court Coalition, Inc., as a member of the board of the Veterans Defense Project in Minneapolis, and as a member of the advisory committee to the national Veterans Justice Commission chaired by former U.S. Defense Secretary and U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel.