Total Credits: 2.75 CLE
Join Division 2 of the Court of Appeals to learn about:
Faculty:
Honorable Christopher Staring, Vice Chief Judge, Arizona Court of Appeals Division Two
Honorable Lacey Gard, Arizona Court of Appeals Division Two
Honorable Michael Kelly, Arizona Court of Appeals Division Two
Honorable Christopher O’Neil, Arizona Court of Appeals Division Two
Honorable Jeffrey Sklar, Arizona Court of Appeals Division Two
Mac McCallum, Chief Staff Attorney, Arizona Court of Appeals Division Two
Moderator:
Geri Mose Mahrt, Staff Attorney, Arizona Court of Appeals Division Two
| Best Practices For Civil Appeals In The Newly-Expanded Division 2 (646.8 KB) | 44 Pages | Available after Purchase |
Chief Judge Christopher Staring attended the University of California at Davis, receiving his B.A. in 1983. He received his J.D. from Tulane University Law School in 1986, graduating cum laude, and Order of the Coif. Judge Staring was in private civil practice for more than 23 years before being appointed a judge of the Superior Court of Arizona for Pima County in 2010. He was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals, Division Two in 2015.
Judge Staring serves as Chair of the Arizona Commission on Judicial Conduct. He also serves as Chair of the Arizona Supreme Court’s Ethics Advisory Committee and was a member of the Task Force on Ethics Rules Governing the State Attorney General, County Attorneys, and Other Public Lawyers. Additionally, Judge Staring serves on the Arizona Supreme Court Committee on Juvenile Courts and the Arizona Judicial Council Steering Committee on Mental Health and the Justice System.
Judge Staring previously served on the Arizona Commission on Judicial Performance Review and the Arizona Supreme Court Committee on Mental Health and the Justice System. He is a frequent speaker on judicial ethics, mental health law, and other mental health related topics.
Judge Lacey Gard was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals, Division Two, in 2022. She previously served as a Pinal County Superior Court Judge, where she was assigned to a civil rotation.
Prior to being appointed to the bench, Judge Gard worked for the Arizona Attorney General’s Office for 17 years, most recently serving as a Deputy Solicitor General and Chief Counsel of the Capital Litigation Section. In that capacity, she supervised the State of Arizona’s appellate litigation in all death-penalty cases statewide, including direct appeals, state post-conviction proceedings, and federal habeas corpus proceedings. She also supervised the State’s litigation in non-capital federal habeas corpus cases. She previously served as an Assistant Attorney General in the Criminal Appeals Section, and began her legal career as a law clerk to Judge J. William Brammer, Jr., on Division Two. Judge Gard has served on various Arizona Supreme Court and State Bar Commissions and committees, has taught advanced legal writing and appellate advocacy at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, and was a frequent faculty member for state and national trainings in the areas of criminal law, capital sentencing, appellate advocacy, and federal habeas corpus. Judge Gard graduated summa cum laude and with honors in 2000 from the University of Arizona, receiving a B.A. in Political Science. She received her J.D. from the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law in 2003.
Judge Kelly was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals, Division Two, in 2022. Before his appointment, Judge Kelly was a partner at the Hollingsworth Kelly Law Firm from 2010 to 2022, where his practice focused on civil litigation and trial work. Prior to that, Judge Kelly served as a prosecuting attorney at the Pima County Attorney’s Office where he handled homicide and violent crime cases from 2004 to 2009. During his career as an attorney, Judge Kelly tried more than 100 civil and criminal jury trials. A native Tucsonan, he graduated magna cum laude from the University of Arizona with a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance in 2001, and then received his law degree from the University of Arizona in 2004. Judge Kelly was a longtime volunteer attorney with Step Up to Justice, and served on the Board of Directors for both Southern Arizona Legal Aid and the Tucson Village Farm before his appointment to the bench. He currently serves on the Arizona Supreme Court Commission on Technology.
Honorable Christopher J. O'Neil was born and raised in Casa Grande, Arizona, where he presently resides. Before his appointment to the Arizona Court of Appeals, Judge O’Neil served as the Presiding Judge of the Casa Grande City Court and later as a Judge for the Arizona Superior Court in Pinal County. He graduated magna cum laude from Arizona State University with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and received his Juris Doctorate from the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, where he served as Executive Note Editor for the Arizona Law Review.
Judge Sklar was born in Los Angeles and moved to Tucson during grade school. He graduated from Salpointe Catholic High School, the University of Arizona, and the University of Southern California Gould School of Law. At the UA, he was editor in chief of the Arizona Daily Wildcat, and at USC, he was executive notes editor of the Southern California Law Review. After graduating law school in 2007, he returned to Arizona to clerk for Justice Scott Bales of the Arizona Supreme Court. He then began work as an associate at the Los Angeles law firm of Irell & Manella.
Judge Sklar returned to Arizona yet again in 2010, this time to work at the Tucson office of the Lewis & Roca law firm. He became a partner in 2015. He remained at the firm until 2021, when Gov. Doug Ducey appointed him to the Arizona Superior Court in Pima County. On the Superior Court, Judge Sklar served rotations on both the civil bench and family bench. In July 2022, he was appointed as presiding judge of the family bench. In that capacity, he also began serving on the statewide Family Court Improvement Committee. He remained as presiding family judge until December 2022, when Gov. Ducey appointed him to the Arizona Court of Appeals.
Judge Sklar lives in Tucson with his wife and three children.
Mac McCallum is the Chief Staff Attorney at Division Two of the State of Arizona Court of Appeals. He graduated from the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law in 2005 and served as a law clerk for Judge J. William Brammer, Jr., before joining the staff attorney team in 2010. Mr. McCallum taught legal writing at the University of Arizona College of Law from 2011 to 2024.
is a staff attorney at Division Two of the Arizona Court of Appeals and is the Settlement Conference Attorney for the court's appellate mediation program.Before becoming an attorney, Geri was an elementary school teacher. She received her J.D. degree from the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law in 1987, where she was an editor on the Arizona Law Review. Upon graduation, Geri served as a law clerk for Arizona Court of Appeals Judge James D. Hathaway (deceased). She was a member of the law firm of Davis, Gugino, and Piccarreta, and the Law Office of Robert L. Gugino until she joined the Court of Appeals in 1997. Geri has taught numerous seminars on court-sponsored mediation and appellate practice. She is a native of Chicago.
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