Hon. Samuel Anderson Thumma
Judge, Arizona Court of Appeals, Division One

Judge, and former Chief Judge, Arizona Court of Appeals, Division One (2012-present). Judge, Arizona Superior Court in Maricopa County (2007-2012). Sam chairs the Appellate Judges Education Institute, Inc., Board and is the American Bar Association’s Judicial Division Liaison to the Section of Litigation. He is a Uniform Law Commissioner, serving on the Scope & Program Committee and chairs and has served on various other ULC Committees. He is an American Law Institute Advisor to the RESTATEMENT OF THE LAW (THIRD) OF TORTS: REMEDIES. Sam chairs Arizona’s Commission on Access to Justice and co-chairs the COVID-19 Continuity of Court Operations During Public Health Emergency Workgroup (the Plan B Workgroup). He was named 2021 Judge of the Year by Arizona Supreme Court.

Sam has taught at more than 450 law-related programs and has published 15 law review articles and more than 60 other law-related articles. Previously, Sam was a partner at Perkins Coie Brown & Bain, P.A., in Phoenix, and an associate at Arnold & Porter in Washington, D.C. He was a law clerk for Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Stanley G. Feldman and Judge David R. Hansen, United States District Court, Northern District of Iowa. Sam received a Master of Laws from Duke University School of Law in 2020; graduated Order of the Coif from the University of Iowa College of Law in 1988, where he was a Note & Comment Editor on the IOWA LAW REVIEW, and from Iowa State University in 1984, where he was a Truman Scholar.