Total Credits: 3 CLE
Join Judges and Staff of Division Two of the Court of Appeals to learn about the appellate process, appellate advocacy, and recent changes to the special action rules.
Summary of Seminar:
Faculty from Arizona Court of Appeals Division Two:
Honorable Sean Brearcliffe
Honorable Lacey Gard
Honorable Michael Kelly
Lisa Howell, Clerk of the Court
Mac McCallum, Chief Staff Attorney
Crystal Brown, Staff Attorney
Moderator:
Crystal Brown, Staff Attorney
| Current Topics Regarding Civil Appeals in Division Two of the Court of Appeals Manual (2.2 MB) | 61 Pages | Available after Purchase |
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.
Honorable Sean E. Brearcliffe was appointed to the Court of Appeals on September 20, 2017. At the time of his appointment, he had been serving as a trial judge on the Pima County Superior Court for nearly five years. He received his Bachelor of Arts in English from California State University, Hayward, and his law degree from Golden Gate University School of Law in San Francisco. Before becoming a Judge, Judge Brearcliffe was in private practice as a senior litigation partner with Rusing Lopez & Lizardi, PLLC, in Tucson. His private practice for over 17 years was as a general commercial litigator, focusing on contract, insurance, construction, class-action, agriculture, and employment litigation. Judge Brearcliffe is the immediate past president of the Arizona Judges Association, past national Chairman of the Federal Bar Association’s Professional Ethics Committee and of the American Judges Association’s Ethics and Professionalism Committee, past President of the William D. Browning Tucson Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, past Chairman of the Pima County Bar Association’s Rules Committee, former member of the United States District Court’s Local Rules Advisory Committee, and an alumnus of the Morris K. Udall American Inns of Court.
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.
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.
Lisa Howell is the Clerk of the Court for the Arizona Court of Appeals, Division Two. Before becoming Clerk, she served as a staff attorney for the court beginning in 2010. She also served as law clerk to the Honorable A. John Pelander and to the Honorable Virginia C. Kelly, beginning in 2004. She is a Professor of Practice at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law, where she received her JD in 2004, summa cum laude and as a member of the Order of the Coif and the Arizona Law Review.
Crystal Brown-Ward is a staff attorney at the Arizona Court of Appeals, Division II. She previously clerked for Judge Garye Vásquez at Division II and Judge Howard Hantman at the Pima County Superior Court. Crystal graduated from the University of Arizona, James E. Rogers College of Law, in May 2010 and served as managing editor of the Arizona Journal of International and Comparative Law. She also graduated from the University of Arizona in May 2006 with a bachelor of arts in political science and journalism. In her free time, Crystal enjoys spending time with her husband, their two young daughters, and their two Goldendoodles.
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