Christopher T Whitten

Superior court

Chris Whitten is a trial court judge on the Superior Court of Arizona. Before his appointment to the bench in 2006, he was a trial lawyer for fifteen years (and still is, in his heart). He is the Chair of the Phoenix Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA) and, prior to taking the bench, was certified by the Arizona State Bar as a specialist in injury and wrongful death litigation. As a judge, he has presided over civil, commercial, criminal, family, tax and juvenile dependency cases. By the time of his retirement in 2026, he will have presided over commercial/civil case for eleven of his twenty years on the bench.

He is the Past Chair of Board of Trustees of the National Judicial College, where he served as a Trustee for twelve years. He has taught as an adjunct professor at several law schools, including Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, Louisiana State University School of Law, The University of San Diego School of Law and Emory University School of Law.

Judge Whitten has been very involved in the American Bar Association. He is the past Chair of the National Conference of State Trial Judges, a past member of the ABA House of Delegates, a former Chair of the Commission on the American Jury and was a liaison to the Section of Litigation Council. He also served on the ABA Nominations Committee, helping to nominate future ABA Presidents and Officers.

He also enjoys working with the National Institute for Trial Advocacy (NITA), both nationally and internationally, receiving the Hon. Robert E. Keeton Award for outstanding service in 2017. He has trained judges and lawyers throughout Mexico as they work to reform their judicial process, with Solicitors in Ireland to improve their advocacy skills as their rights of appearance have expanded, with lawyers in Myanmar (Burma) on the important role of advocacy skills in their emerging democracy, with Judges in Egypt on developing skills to combat human trafficking, with lawyers in Guam and Saipan to expand their trial skills, with law professors in Japan on effectively teaching trial advocacy to law students, and with lawyers throughout the United States on taking effective depositions and improving thier trial skills.

Away from the bench, he has enjoyed serving his community as a board member and officer for numerous charitable organizations, including the Arizona Foundation for Blind Children, the University of San Diego School of Law Alumni Board, the Arizona School for the Arts, the Recreational Association of Madison Meadows and Simis and the Brophy Lacrosse Club.

He has been married to his high school girlfriend for over thirty years. Together, they raised two remarkable adult sons, Tom and Charlie. In 2010 Judge Whitten and his sons were part of a team that successfully led a group of thirteen blind hikers on a marathon twenty-four mile, one-day trek from rim to rim across the Grand Canyon.