Hon. Philip G. Espinosa
Court of Appeals, Division 2
Court of Appeals, Division 2
Honorable Philip Espinosa is a native of Tucson and was appointed to Division Two of the Arizona Court of Appeals in 1992. He was elected Chief Judge in 1999 and during his term in that capacity accepted the Arizona Supreme Court’s Public Access To Justice Award for Division Two’s ground-breaking and nationally recognized innovations in court technology and Internet access. Before his appointment to the bench, Judge Espinosa was an Assistant U.S. Attorney in Tucson and became Deputy Chief of the criminal division in 1990. As a federal prosecutor, he litigated many high profile cases in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona and the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, and received numerous commendations, including the U.S. Attorney General’s Award for Prosecution of Public Corruption, and special recognition by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for “outstanding contributions to the District of Arizona.” Judge Espinosa was a long-time member and chair of the Arizona Commission on Judicial Conduct and also a founding member and chair of the Arizona Judicial Performance Review Commission. He subsequently served on the Supreme Court Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee, and currently chairs a committee of the National Council of Chief Judges of State Courts of Appeal. On weekends he is a pro bono judge for the Pima County Teen Court. He also serves on several community boards and is a volunteer music director at his church.