Scott Bales joined the Arizona Supreme Court in 2005 and became Chief Justice on July 1, 2014.   He regularly teaches courses as an adjunct professor at the law schools at Arizona State University and the University of Arizona.  Justice Bales is also a member of the Council of the American Law Institute and the Vice Chair of the Council of the ABA’s Section on Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar.  He previously served as the Chair of the Appellate Judges Conference of the ABA’s Judicial Division.
Before his appointment to the Court, he had practiced law in Arizona for nearly 20 years as both a private and public lawyer.  From 2001-2005, he worked at Lewis and Roca LLP, where his practice focused on appellate and complex litigation.  As Arizona’s Solicitor General from 1999-2001, he handled major appeals in state and federal court, oversaw the enforcement of Arizona election laws, and supervised the preparation of legal opinions on issues concerning state government.   Justice Bales also was a Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Policy Development, a federal prosecutor in the United States Attorney’s Office in Phoenix, and a Special Investigative Counsel for the Justice Department’s Inspector General.  He clerked for Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on the U.S. Supreme Court and Judge Joseph T. Sneed III on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.  After graduating from Michigan State University with degrees in history and economics, he received a master’s degree in economics and his law degree from Harvard.

is a Shareholder in the Phoenix, Arizona office of Tiffany & Bosco, P.A. Will is an experienced trial attorney that concentrates his practice in commercial and civil litigation with an emphasis in real estate, intra-company and business disputes, eminent domain, and select catastrophic personal injury/wrongful death/medical malpractice cases. Will is rated AV® Preeminent™ in the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory, a member of Arizona's Finest Lawyers, and a member of the American Arbitration Association's (AAA) panel of arbitrators. Will's community activities include serving on the State Bar of Arizona's Civil Practice and Procedure Committee, the Camelback East Village Planning and Zoning Committee, and the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the Goodwill of Central and Northern Arizona. Will's first courtroom experiences were in the United States Army Judge Advocate General's (JAG) Corps, where he served with the 101st Airborne Division and 82nd Airborne Division. Will was the lead prosecutor in two high-profile war crimes cases during the Iraq war-the Mahmudiyah Massacre and the Operation Iron Triangle killings-and won convictions in each case. He was honorably discharged in 2008 at the rank of Major. Will is a veteran of Iraq, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and the Republic of Korea, and is a recipient of the Bronze Star Medal. Will received his B.S. from Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona and his J.D./M.B.A. from Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana. In his free time, Will enjoys training for and competing in Ironman races and short-course triathlons, as well as mountain biking and snowboarding. He lives in Phoenix with his wife Terri and their Chesapeake Bay retriever Chinook.

CHIEF JUDGE DAVID BRUCE GASS grew up in central Pennsylvania but spent a year taking classes in Chihuahua, Mexico. He served as a law clerk to the Honorable Ruth V. McGregor before joining the Phoenix law firm of Lewis and Roca, LLP. He spent seven sessions working as Counsel at the Arizona House of Representatives, before going to the Arizona Attorney General’s Office.

In 2009, Judge Gass was appointed to the Superior Court in Maricopa County. He served on all four major assignments. He sat on the Arizona Bar Association’s Civil Jury Instruction Committee and served as President of the Arizona Judges’ Association. He and Judge Pamela Svoboda established the STRENGTH Court in Maricopa County. STRENGTH Court works with victims of sex trafficking who are in the juvenile justice system.

In 2019, Judge Gass was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals, Division One. He began serving as the Vice Chief Judge effective July 2021 and began his term as Chief Judge effective July 2023. He is a member of the Arizona Judicial Council and the Arizona Supreme Court Commission on Diversity, Equality, and Justice. He chaired the 2022 Child Support Guidelines Review Subcommittee.

Judge Gass was awarded the 2005 Arizona State University College of Law Alumni Association recognition for outstanding service, the 2014 Michael D. Ryan Award for Judicial Excellence from the State Bar of Arizona Public Lawyers Section, the 2018 Pete Dunn Above and Beyond Award as outstanding ambassador of the Judges in Arizona, and the 2018 Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law Judicial Officer of the Year. The State Bar of Arizona awarded him its 2020 Diversity and Inclusion Leadership Award. In 2021, the Arizona Supreme Court’s Committee on Judicial Education and Training awarded him the Excellence in Education Award.

Judge Gass is on the Arizona Town Hall Training Committee and has worked with Arizona Anytown Youth Leadership.

Judge Gass is a member of the LGBTQ+ community. He focuses and speaks on diversity and inclusion issues. He has been active in many related projects. Several are listed here. He developed a training module to unpack and demystify the judicial application process to encourage diversity in Arizona’s courts. He also developed an undergraduate internship program at the Arizona Court of Appeals, Division One to give diverse undergraduate students experience working in the courts and to encourage them to go to law school.

Most notable, Judge Gass felt strongly that Arizona should officially recognize the Fred Korematsu Day of Civil Liberties and the Constitution so that we never forget the wrongs done to persons of Japanese descent and their families. He spent five years making it a reality so we always remember our constitution and our civil liberties are fragile and require our constant attention.

And he saves stray dogs on the side.

a member of Lang & Klain, PC, focuses his practice on complex corporate and commercial litigation. He is a 2012-2022 Super Lawyers® selectee in business litigation and is listed in Best Lawyers in America® for commercial litigation and bet-the-company litigation. Bill has served on the State Bar of Arizona's Civil Practice and Procedure Committee since 2000, and chaired the Committee from 2011-2014. He is an appointed member of the Arizona Judicial Council's Committee on Superior Court. Previously, Bill served as Co-Chair of the Arizona Supreme Court's Task Force on the Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure and as a member of the Court's Advisory Committee on Rules of Evidence, Committee on Civil Justice Reform, Business Court Advisory Committee, and Committee on Civil Rules of Procedure for Limited Jurisdiction Courts. Through these committees and task forces, Bill has been involved with the restyling of the Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure, the Arizona Rules of Civil Appellate Procedure, and the Arizona Rules of Evidence, the initial drafting of the Justice Court Rules of Civil Procedure, the design of the Maricopa County Superior Court's Commercial Court pilot project, and a host of other civil rules projects, including the 2018 civil justice reform amendments and 2014 case management and trial setting rule amendments. He was awarded the Chief Justice's Outstanding Contribution to the Courts Award in 2016, the State Bar's Member of the Year Award in 2013, the State Bar President's Award in 2008, and the Scottsdale Bar Association's Award of Excellence in 2012. Bill teaches a course on Civil Pretrial Practice as an adjunct professor at the Arizona State University Sandra Day O'Connor College of law and has chaired or served on the faculty of more than 80 CLE programs for the State Bar and other professional associations. He has also authored a number of law-related articles for various publications. Bill is a member of the American Bar Association, the Maricopa County Bar Association, and the Scottsdale Bar Association. He received his J.D. from the University of Denver and B.A. from the University of Richmond. Bill lives in Phoenix with his wife, Carrie, and their two daughters.

Michael T. Liburdi

United States District Judge

District of Arizona

 

The Honorable Michael T. Liburdi is a United States District Judge for the District of Arizona located in Phoenix. His judicial service began in August 2019.

 

Immediately prior to his judicial appointment, Judge Liburdi was a shareholder at the international law firm of Greenberg Traurig, LLP. He was also a partner at the Phoenix office of Snell & Wilmer L.L.P. Judge Liburdi entered private practice with the law firm of Brown & Bain P.A., which became the Phoenix office of Perkins Coie LLP. Judge Liburdi’s private sector law practice included complex commercial litigation, antitrust, constitutional law, and political and election law.

 

From 2015-2018, Judge Liburdi served as General Counsel to Arizona Governor Douglas A. Ducey. He provided legal advice to the Governor, advised on and vetted appointments to the state judicial branch, directed litigation involving the state agencies, and worked with members of the Arizona Legislature and Arizona’s Congressional delegation on legal policy issues.

 

Judge Liburdi began his legal career as a law clerk to the Honorable Ruth V. McGregor on the Arizona Supreme Court.

 

Judge Liburdi has served as an adjunct professor of law at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University.

 

Judge Liburdi earned his Juris Doctorate magna cum laude from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law and a Bachelor of Science degree summa cum laude from Arizona State University.

PATRICIA LEE REFO served as President of the American Bar Association in 2020-2021 and is a partner with Snell & Wilmer. Her practice is concentrated in complex commercial litigation and internal investigations, with extensive experience in financial institutions litigation, professional malpractice defense, class actions, trade secret litigation, and commercial and business torts. Before being elected ABA President, she served as Chair of the ABA House of Delegates and Chair of the Section of Litigation. She was a member of the Advisory Committee on the Arizona Rules of Evidence and served from 2000-2006 on the Advisory Committee on the Federal Rules of Evidence by appointment of Chief Justice William Rehnquist. The National Law Journal named her one of 50 Most Influential Women Lawyers in America. A graduate of the University of Michigan with high honors and high distinction and a cum laude graduate of the University of Michigan Law School, she was awarded the Medal of Honor by the World Jurist Association, the Jury System Impact Award by the ABA, the President’s Award by the State Bar of Arizona, and is a member of the Maricopa County Bar Hall of Fame.

David Rosenbaum is with Osborn Maledon. Mr. Rosenbaum’s practice focuses on complex commercial litigation in state and federal courts. He has represented public companies and their officers and directors in numerous securities fraud class actions, represented Fortune 50 companies in a wide range of complex commercial litigation matters, including securities and intellectual property litigation, class action claims, as well as other large
commercial disputes.

David has served as President of the Federal Bar Association Phoenix Chapter and as Lawyer Representative to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference. He currently serves on the Arizona State Bar Board of Governors and the Board of Directors at the Arizona Foundation for Legal Services and Education. He has been recognized in America’s Leading Lawyers for Business by Chambers USA and has been named multiple times as Lawyer of the Year for Phoenix in Best Lawyers® and as a Top 100 Lawyer in Arizona by AZ Business Magazine.

David chaired the Arizona Supreme Court Business Court Advisory Committee, which led to the creation of Maricopa County’s Commercial Court. He co-chaired the Arizona Supreme Court Task Force on the Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure, which led to the full restyling of Arizona’s Rules in 2015.

Vice Chief Justice Ann A. Scott Timmer joined the Arizona Supreme Court in 2012. She was elected by her colleagues as Vice Chief Justice in 2019. She currently chairs the court’s Commission on Technology, and previously chaired the court’s Legal Services Task Force, and the Attorney Regulation Committee. She is a member of the National Conference of Bar Examiners Board of Trustees, serves on the Board of Trustees of the Appellate Judges Education Institute and has been elected to The American Law Institute. She has received many honors, including most recently being named one of a New Decade of Arizona’s Most Intriguing Women (2022), an ABA Journal and ABA Center for Innovation Legal Rebel (2021), and the Arizona Capitol Times Woman of the Year (2020). Prior to being appointed to the Supreme Court bench, Justice Timmer served on the Arizona Court of Appeals for twelve years, serving as its chief judge for three years. Justice Timmer earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Arizona, her J. D. magna cum laude, from Arizona State University Law School (now the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law), and a Masters in Judicial Studies from Duke University Law School. As an attorney, she primarily practiced commercial litigation with Phoenix-based law firms.