Karen J Nygaard

attorney

Karen Nygaard is a retired judicial officer who served on the Pima County Superior Court bench for over 15 years. She currently serves as a judge pro tempore in that court. Prior to being appointed to the bench, she was a shareholder in the law firm DeConcini McDonald Yetwin & Lacy where she primarily practiced in the area of civil litigation. Before working at the DeConcini firm, she was a trial deputy with the Pima County Attorney’s Office; and associate with the Phoenix firm of O’Connor Cavanaugh Westover Killingsworth and Beshears; and a judicial law clerk for the Arizona Court of Appeals Division II. She has tried approximately 80 jury trials in a variety of cases, both civil and criminal. Prior to law school, she was a mathematics teacher and guidance counsellor for Tucson Unified School District. Her professional activities have included serving as President of the Pima County Bar Association, Chair of the Trial Practice Section of the State Bar of Arizona, President of the Southern Arizona Chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates, member of the Advisory Board of the Volunteer Lawyers Program, founding member of the Board of Directors of Step Up to Justice, member of the Morris K. Udall Inn of the Court, and editor of The Writ. Since retiring from the bench, she regularly volunteers to assist and represent indigent clients of SU2J in their court cases. Karen obtained a B.S. in Mathematics from The University of Arizona in 1972, an M.Ed. from the University of Arizona in 1976 and a J.D. from the James E. Rogers College of Law in 1982. She is a member of the State Bars of Arizona and Colorado, the U.S. District Court and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.