Douglas L Rayes

has been a Judge in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona since 2014. He has sat by designation with the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and is the Chairman of the Ninth Circuit’s Criminal Case Committee. From 2000 until 2014, he was a judge in the Maricopa County Superior Court where he presided over cases in Family, Complex Civil, and Criminal Court. From 2010 through 2012, he was the Presiding Criminal Judge. Judge Rayes was the chairman of the Arizona Supreme Court’s New Judge Orientation; training required of all newly appointed or elected Superior Court Judges and Commissioners. Judge Rayes co-chaired the creation of the Veterans Court for the Maricopa County Superior Court and brought the Superior Court into the annual Homeless Veteran Stand-Down. He helped create an e-search warrant procedure for the Superior Court. He served on the Commission on Victims in the Court, the Capital Case Oversight Committee, the Court Leadership Institute of Arizona and was a member of the Statewide Judicial Performance Review Commission. Judge Rayes was named the Judge of the Year by the Phoenix Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates. From 1982 until 2000, Judge Rayes was a partner in the firm of McGroder, Tryon, Heller, Rayes and Berch, later Tryon, Heller and Rayes, litigating personal injury and medical malpractice cases. Judge Rayes was in the Army JAGC from 1979 until 1982, assigned to the Third Armored Division in Frankfurt Germany, where he defended soldiers charged with major felonies in Courts Martial trials before military jury panels. Judge Rayes graduated from Arizona State University with degrees in engineering and law. (11/2017)