Honorable Erik Thorson

Maricopa County Superior Court

Judge Thorson was appointed to the Maricopa County Superior Court on December 13, 2017, and took the bench in early 2018. Judge Thorson serves as the Arizona Tax Court Presiding Judge, and has a calendar that includes Commercial Court cases, while generally presiding over cases for the Civil Department of the Court. After graduation from the University of Michigan Law School, Judge Thorson was a lawyer with Snell & Wilmer L.L.P., first as an Associate and then as a Partner in its Special Litigation and Compliance Group. Judge Thorson co-chairs the Arizona Supreme Court's Advisory Committee on the Rules of Evidence and has served for nine years on the State Bar of Arizona Civil Practice and Procedure Committee. The judge is a veteran petitioner of several court rules cycles for a variety of rule sets and chaired the Ariz. R. Civ. P. 5.4 Working Group in 2018 and 2019. During the pandemic, Judge Thorson chaired the Task Force on Conducting Juvenile Court Proceedings Safely in a Community Experiencing the Spread of an Infectious Disease, earning recognition as a "Presiding Judge's COVID Hero" for that work. A former journalist, Judge Thorson earned a B.A. in Journalism from Arizona State University, serving as Editor in Chief of the University's morning daily, The State Press, as a college senior.