Gov. Janet Mills said Friday she is nominating a high-ranking member of Attorney General Aaron Frey’s office to serve on the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.

Mills announced her nomination of Chief Deputy Attorney General Chris Taub to fill an opening on the state’s seven-member high court that was made when Justice Andrew Horton retired last year. Taub’s appointment must go before the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee, then to the state Senate for a confirmation vote.

He represents Mills’ seventh nominee to the high court since the Democratic governor took office in 2019. Mills is termed out this year and running for U.S. Senate.

Taub, a 58-year-old Brunswick resident, has served in the attorney general’s office since 1999, overseeing its litigation division before starting his current leadership role in 2021. He has represented Maine in numerous state and federal cases, covering matters ranging from civil rights to environmental battles to negotiations with tobacco companies over settlement funds.

“If confirmed, I will continue to serve the people of Maine as I have throughout my 27-year career in the attorney general’s office, to ensure the law is upheld fairly and equitably,” Taub, who earned his law degree from Boston University and his undergraduate degree from Cornell University, said in Friday’s news release.

Taub “has earned wide respect for his professionalism and legal acumen on a variety of challenging issues,” Mills said in the news release.

“He has represented the people of Maine with integrity and distinction in many complex matters and has earned this nomination to the Supreme Judicial Court.”

Taub worked under Mills when she was Maine’s attorney general from 2013-19.