Diane M Johnsen

Senior Counsel

Perkins Coie LLP

, a former political reporter, graduated from Stanford Law School in 1982. She clerked for Judge Ben Duniway on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, then worked for two years at Munger Tolles & Olson in Los Angeles before joining the Phoenix law firm then known as Martori, Meyer, Hendricks & Victor. She practiced commercial litigation at that firm and its successor, Osborn Maledon, until Governor Napolitano appointed her to the Arizona Court of Appeals in 2006. She was that court's Chief Judge in 2013-16, and in 2017 earned a masters of judicial studies from Duke Law School. Her thesis is "Building a Bench: A Close Look at State Appellate Courts Constructed by the Respective Methods of Judicial Selection," 53 San Diego L. Rev. 829 (2016). Judge Johnsen is a member of the American Law Institute. In 2020, she received the State Bar’s James A. Walsh Outstanding Jurist Award and was named the Arizona Judicial Branch’s Judge of the Year. She now is a senior counsel specializing in appellate law at Perkins Coie.