Andrew M. Jacobs
Judge Andrew Jacobs was appointed to the Arizona Court of Appeals by Governor Katie Hobbs on February 21, 2023, joining the court on March 27, 2023.
Andrew grew up in Downers Grove, Illinois. After studying history and psychology at the University of Illinois, Andrew graduated Harvard Law School magna cum laude in 1992, where he was a research assistant to Professor Laurence Tribe. He was a partner at Jenner & Block in Chicago and Snell & Wilmer in Tucson and Phoenix, and led Snell’s appellate practice for thirteen years.
The Arizona Supreme Court has appointed Andrew to six bodies: Judicial Performance Review (2009-16), the Task Force on the Arizona Rules of Civil Procedure (2014-16), the Committee for Civil Justice Reform (2016-17), the Judicial Ethics Advisory Committee (2017-23), the Task Force on Jury Data Collection, Practices, and Procedures (2021-22) and the Task Force on the Rules of Procedure for Special Action (2023-24). Andrew serves on the Arizona State Bar’s Civil Practice and Procedure Committee (2009-present) and was its Chair (2014-18). He served in the Arizona State Bar Batson Working Group (2020-21). Andrew was a principal initial drafter of many procedural rules, including Ariz. R. Civ. P. 26.2 (tiering), and contributed to many more. He proposed Fair Limits Proceedings to improve case management during the Covid crisis and helped draft Maricopa County Superior Court A.O. 2020-72, In the Matter of Late Case Fair Limits Proceedings. He served in the Ninth Circuit’s Advisory Committee on Rules and Civil Practice (2008-12), led the Lawyer Representative Coordinating Committee of the Ninth Circuit (2011-12), and within the Ninth Circuit’s Conference Executive Committee (2009-12) participated in and helped plan the Ninth Circuit’s judicial conferences.
Andrew believes deeply in pro bono service. He co-founded the District of Arizona’s pro bono program in 2006 and was its lead coordinator from 2007-11. He was the lawyer coordinator for the Ninth Circuit’s pro bono program from 2007-23 for Arizona and Nevada, and for the Arizona Court of Appeals for Division Two from 2014-23, placing 220 pro bono cases in all.
Andrew was admitted to practice in Illinois, Arizona, and Nevada, joining their bars, the ABA, and the Arizona LGBT Bar. He is also a member of AWLA, Los Abogados, and AAABA, and mentors in the Latina Mentoring Project. He re-founded the Arizona Lawyer Chapter of the American Constitution Society and was its President (2018-22) and Co-President (2022-23).
Andrew was a member of the Board of Directors of the Neo-Futurists theater company (Chicago), President of the Trails End Improvement Association (Tucson), Chair of the Board of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Tucson, and a member of the Board of Fellows of the Center for Creative Photography (Tucson). He supports many charitable organizations.
Andrew argued sixty civil appeals among the Seventh, Ninth, and Tenth Circuits, the Arizona Court of Appeals and Arizona Supreme Court, and the courts of Nevada, Washington, California, Utah, and Colorado. He took two cases to the U.S. Supreme Court as counsel of record. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Appellate Lawyers, a Member of the American Law Institute, was recognized as a Member of the Year by the Arizona State Bar in 2016, co-authored Chapter 3 of the Arizona Appellate Handbook, Filing an Appeal of Right to the Court of Appeals, and is a co-editor of the Arizona Appellate Handbook (forthcoming June 2024). He authored five law review articles, including “The Rhetorical Construction of Rights: The Case of the Gay Rights Movement, 1969-1991,” 72 Neb. L. Rev. 723 (1993) (quoted in Romer v. Evans, 517 U.S. 620, 646 (1996) (Scalia, J., dissenting)).