Annapolis (Map, News) - Gov. Martin O’Malley, as the five governors before him had done, issued an executive order Friday appointing commissions to nominate judges for the circuit and appellate courts.

O’Malley will appoint judges based on the commissions’ nominees.

Due to retirements, O’Malley may appoint three judges to the seven-member Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court.

The governor named 12 new members to the Appellate Courts Judicial Nominating Commission, all of them attorneys, including former Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr., his father-in-law.

O’Malley named Sheila Sachs, a prominent divorce attorney and former president of the Baltimore City Bar Association, as chairwoman.