The Hon. Samuel A. Thumma

Samuel A. Thumma has served as a judge on the Arizona Court of Appeals, Division One, in Phoenix since 2012, serving as Chief Judge (2017-2019) and Vice Chief Judge (2015-2017). Before that, he served for five years as a trial judge (criminal and juvenile rotations) on the Arizona Superior Court in Maricopa County. Before joining the bench, he was an AV Peer Review Rated Lawyer and a partner at Perkins Coie/Brown & Bain, P.A., in Phoenix, and an associate at Arnold & Porter in Washington, D.C. He served as a law clerk for Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Stanley G. Feldman and Judge David R. Hansen, United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa.

Judge Thumma served as an Adviser to the Restatement of the Law (Third) of Torts: Lability for Economic Harm and now serves as an Adviser to the Restatement of the Law (Third): Remedies. 

Judge Thumma is chair of the Appellate Judges Education Institute, Inc., Board, and immediate past chair of the ABA’s Judicial Division Appellate Judges Conference. He is a Uniform Law Commissioner, where he serves on the Scope and Program Committee, chairs the Drafting Committee on Updating the Uniform Determination of Death Act and serves or has served on various Study, Drafting and other Committees. He chairs the Arizona Commission on Access to Justice and co-teaches evidence at Arizona State University Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law. He has presented at more than 450 law-related seminars and has published 5 law review articles and nearly 70 other law-related articles or book chapters. In 2021, he was named Judge of the Year by the Arizona Supreme Court.