Evidence and Case Update and Judicial Panel with Q&A (2024 CLE by the Sea)

Honorable Sara J Agne Related Seminars and Products

Maricopa County Superior Court

was appointed to the Maricopa County Superior Court on December 13, 2017, and took the bench in early 2018. Judge Agne serves as the Arizona Tax Court Presiding Judge, and has a calendar that includes Commercial Court cases, while generally presiding over cases for the Civil Department of the Court. After graduation from the University of Michigan Law School, Judge Agne was a lawyer with Snell & Wilmer L.L.P., first as an Associate and then as a Partner in its Special Litigation and Compliance Group. Judge Agne co-chairs the Arizona Supreme Court's Advisory Committee on the Rules of Evidence and has served for nine years on the State Bar of Arizona Civil Practice and Procedure Committee. The judge is a veteran petitioner of several court rules cycles for a variety of rule sets and chaired the Ariz. R. Civ. P. 5.4 Working Group in 2018 and 2019. During the pandemic, Judge Agne chaired the Task Force on Conducting Juvenile Court Proceedings Safely in a Community Experiencing the Spread of an Infectious Disease, earning recognition as a "Presiding Judge's COVID Hero" for that work. A former journalist, Judge Agne earned a B.A. in Journalism from Arizona State University, serving as Editor in Chief of the University's morning daily, The State Press, as a college senior.

Jessica Jeanne Berch Related Seminars and Products

JESSICA BERCH — Dean’s Fellow for Teaching Excellence and Associate Teaching Professor at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. Jessica’s teaching and writing interests principally revolve around civil litigation and federalism, and she has taught Civil Procedure I and Advanced Civil Procedure, Conflict of Laws, Evidence, and Federal Courts, among other classes. She has published numerous articles, most recently in the Wake Forest Law Review, UC Davis Law Review, Utah Law Review, Nevada Law Journal, and Boston College Law Review. Jessica is also a co-author of the Federal Rules of Evidence Manual (with Stephen A. Saltzburg, Michael M. Martin, and Daniel J. Capra), Criminal Procedure: Constitutional Constraints Upon Investigation and Proof (with James J. Tomkovicz, forthcoming), and Introduction to Legal Method and Process (with Amy Langenfeld). Jessica has served as a member on the Arizona Supreme Court’s Advisory Committee on Rules of Evidence since 2018 and was a member of the State Bar Civil Practice and Procedure Committee from 2018 to 2021. Before entering academia, Jessica clerked for the Honorable Mary M. Schroeder of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and worked at the Phoenix office of Perkins Coie LLP, where her practice centered on complex civil litigation and appeals. Jessica graduated with top honors from Columbia Law School.

Honorable Andrew M Jacobs Related Seminars and Products

Arizona Court of Appeals

was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals by Governor Katie Hobbs on February 21, 2023. He studied history at the University of Illinois, and graduated Harvard Law School magna cum laude in 1992, where he was a research assistant to Professor Laurence Tribe. He was a partner at Jenner & Block in Chicago and Snell & Wilmer in Tucson and Phoenix, and led Snell’s appellate practice for thirteen years. The Arizona Supreme Court has appointed Andrew to six bodies: Judicial Performance Review, the Task Force on the Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure, the Committee for Civil Justice Reform, the Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee, the Task Force on Jury Data Collection, Practices, and Procedures, and the Task Force on the Rules of Procedure for Special Actions. Andrew has served on the Arizona State Bar’s Civil Practice and Procedure Committee for fifteen years and was its Chair from 2014-18. He served in the Arizona State Bar Batson Working Group. Andrew was a principal initial drafter of Ariz. R. Civ. P. 26.2 (tiering) and has contributed to many more court rules. He served in the Ninth Circuit’s Advisory Committee on Rules and Civil Practice. He co-founded the District of Arizona’s pro bono program in 2006 and coordinated it for five years. He was the lawyer coordinator for the Ninth Circuit’s pro bono program from 2007-23 for Arizona and Nevada, and for the Arizona Court of Appeals for Division Two from 2014-23. He placed over 220 pro bono cases in these roles. Andrew was admitted to practice in Illinois, Arizona, and Nevada, joining their bars, the ABA, and the Arizona LGBT Bar, as a member of that community. He is also a member of AWLA, Los Abogados, and AAABA, and mentors in the Latina Mentoring Project. He re-founded the Arizona Lawyer Chapter of the American Constitution Society and was its President for many years. Andrew argued sixty civil appeals among three federal circuits and six states. He took two cases to the U.S. Supreme Court as counsel of record. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, a Member of the American Law Institute, a co-editor of the Arizona Appellate Handbook, and was an Arizona State Bar Member of the Year in 2016.

D Douglas Metcalf Related Seminars and Products

Judge of the Superior Court

Pima County Superior Court

D. Douglas Metcalf, Judge Pima County Superior Court, 2013 to present. At the time he was appointed to the bench, Judge Metcalf was a partner in law firm of Lewis and Roca, LLP. He started his career as a law clerk for the United States Tax Court and then served as a federal prosecutor for the United States Department of Justice in the tax division. He received his law degree from Drake University and his undergraduate degree from the University of Iowa. He remains a proud Hawkeye.

John D Napper Related Seminars and Products

was the Yavapai County Public Defender from May of 2014 to December 2016. There he directed an office of 17 attorneys and 15 staff along with approximately 20 contract lawyers. He was in private practice prior to his appointment as the Public Defender. As an attorney he handled civil, criminal, and appellate cases. He graduated with honors from the John Marshall Law School in Chicago Illinois in 2002. Judge Napper was appointed by Chief Justice Brutinel to serve as the Presiding Judge of Yavapai County, effective August 1st, 2020.

Mikel Patrick Steinfeld Related Seminars and Products

Maricopa County Public Defenders Office

Mikel supervises the Appeals Unit at the Maricopa County Public Defender's Office. A career-long public defender, Mikel's handled cases spanning from misdemeanor DUIs in local justice courts to capital cases before the Supreme Court of the United States. And he has a host of strong opinions on everything from legal writing and evidence rules to romance novels and Dungeons and Dragons.