Judge Lacey S. Gard: Professional Background and Legal Expertise

Hon. Lacey S. Gard is a judge for the Pinal County Superior Court in Arizona. She was appointed to the bench by Governor Doug Ducey in September 2021.

Prior to her appointment, Gard spent the bulk of her legal career with the Arizona Attorney General’s Office, joining the office as an assistant attorney general in 2004. During her tenure in that position, she held assignments in the Criminal Appeals Section (2004 to 2007) and the Capital Litigation Section (2007 to 2010). The Capital Litigation Section is tasked with representing the state in all post-sentencing lawsuits filed by death row inmates. Gard also served as unit chief of the Capital Litigation Section (2010 to 2015) and spent her last six years as a deputy solicitor general and section chief counsel of Capital Litigation (2015 to 2021). As such, she oversaw all federal habeas corpus litigation filed by other inmates, as well as supervised fifteen attorneys within the Section.

Gard received the Attorney of the Year Award from the Arizona Attorney General’s Office in 2013.

In addition, she taught advanced legal writing and appellate advocacy as an adjunct professor at the University of Arizona, James E. Rogers College of Law (2012 to 2016). Gard also spent time as a standing member of the federal habeas corpus training faculty for the National Association of Attorneys General Training and Research Institute and of the capital litigation/criminal law training faculty for the Arizona Prosecuting Attorneys’ Advisory Council.

She received a B.A. in political science from the University of Arizona in 2000. Gard went on to complete a J.D. at the University of Arizona, James E. Rogers College of Law in 2003. She was admitted to practice in Arizona, the United States District Court for the District of Arizona, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court.

After graduating from law school, Gard began her legal career as a law clerk to the Hon. J. William Brammer, Jr. with the Arizona Court of Appeals, Division Two (2003 to 2004).

She has sat as a member of the Arizona Supreme Court’s Task Force on Rule 32 of the Arizona Rules of Criminal Procedure, the Arizona Attorney General’s Forensic Science Advisory Committee, the Association of Government Attorneys in Capital Litigation Board of Directors, and the State Bar of Arizona’s Arizona Attorney Advisory Board and Fee Arbitration Committee.

Gard has also sat on the Arizona Supreme Court’s Capital Case Oversight Committee and was a member of the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies.

She is married to the Hon. Patrick K. Gard, who also presides as a judge for the Pinal County Superior Court. The couple has two children.

Gard was born in Tucson, Arizona.