Law Day 2023

Download the Event Program (PDF)

Readings

Speakers

Hon. Suzanne S. Marwil

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge

Suzanne Scheiner Marwil graduated summa cum laude from the University of California-Berkeley in 1994 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. In 1997, she obtained her law degree from Yale Law School. Following law school, Suzanne clerked for the Honorable Vaughn R. Walker at the District Court for the Northern District of California.

After her clerkship, Suzanne joined the law firm of Pillsbury Madison & Sutro in San Francisco, and in 2001 moved back to Phoenix to work for Brown and Bain. In 2005, Suzanne left the private sector to serve as a staff attorney for the Industrial Commission of Arizona and was appointed an Administrative Law Judge at the Industrial Commission in 2011. In 2015, Suzanne became an Administrative Law Judge at the Arizona Office of Administrative Hearings, hearing cases involving various agencies, including the Registrar of Contractors, Department of Real Estate, Department of Insurance, and Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System.

During the course of her career, Suzanne has practiced in the areas of appellate, intellectual property, probate and consumer protection litigation. She also has experience in tribal, contract, election, employment, and antitrust law.

From January 2018 to June 2021, Suzanne sat on the Family Court Bench in Maricopa County at the Southeast Regional Facility. In June 2021, she rotated to the Juvenile Bench at Durango.

She enjoys serving on the Judicial Appointments Advisory Board for the City of Scottsdale.

Hon. Robert M. Brutinel

Chief Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court

Chief Justice Brutinel became Chief Justice on July 1, 2019. He was appointed to the Arizona Supreme Court in November of 2010 and was elected as Vice Chief Justice in January 2018. Prior to his appointment, Justice Brutinel served as the Presiding Judge of the Yavapai County Superior Court, where he presided over cases involving civil, criminal, juvenile, mental health, drug court, probate and domestic relations matters.

Justice Brutinel currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Conference of Chief Justices and has served on the Arizona Supreme Court Committee on Juvenile Courts, the Arizona Supreme Court Commission on Technology, the Arizona Commission on Judicial Conduct, the Supreme Court Arizona Judicial Council, the Arizona Character Education Commission, and the Governor’s Children’s Cabinet. Justice Brutinel is a past president of the Arizona Judges Association and the Yavapai County Bar Association and has served as an Advisory Board Member for the Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections. In 2010 Justice Brutinel was chosen as the National Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) Judge of the Year.

Brutinel graduated with a B.S. in Economics in 1979. He received his law degree from the University of Arizona in 1982 and an LL.M. in Judicial Studies from Duke University in 2018. Justice Brutinel was admitted to practice law in Arizona in 1982.

Prior to serving as a judge, he practiced law in Prescott, Arizona, primarily in the areas of business and real estate, and Indian Law.

Paul Carrese

Director, ASU School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership

Paul Carrese is founding Director of the School of Civic & Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University, which reconnects liberal arts education and American civic education to prepare servant-leaders for public affairs and civil society. While a professor at the U.S. Air Force Academy he co-founded and directed its “Great Books” honors program.

He studied at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, and has held fellowships at Harvard, Princeton, and Delhi University. He earned Master’s degrees from Oxford in Philosophy & Politics and in Theology, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Boston College.

He has authored The Cloaking of Power: Montesquieu, Blackstone, and the Rise of Judicial Activism (Univ of Chicago, 2003) and Democracy in Moderation: Montesquieu, Tocqueville, and Sustainable Liberalism (2016), and has published on George Washington, statesmanship, American constitutionalism, American grand strategy, and civic education. He is a fellow of the Civitas Institute at University of Texas Austin, and was a co-author of the national study on K-12 civic education, funded by the US Department of Education and National Endowment for the Humanities, Educating for American Democracy (2021). A forthcoming article in Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science is “Civic Preparation of American Youth: Reflective Patriotism and Our Constitutional Democracy.”

Paul F. Eckstein

Partner, Perkins Coie LLP

Paul F. Eckstein is a partner in the Phoenix office of Perkins Coie LLP, a national law firm with over 1,200 lawyers. A graduate of Pomona College (1962) and Harvard Law School (1965), Mr. Eckstein has practiced law at Perkins Coie LLP and its predecessors since his admission to the Arizona Bar in 1965. For his first three years in practice, Mr. Eckstein emphasized transactional and tax work.

For the last 54 plus years, Mr. Eckstein's practice has focused on civil litigation matters at both the trial and appellate level, with special emphasis on First Amendment, federal and state constitutional, election (including numerous cases involving initiatives and referenda), antitrust, intellectual property and commercial law issues.

Mr. Eckstein is a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. In 1988, Mr. Eckstein served as coprosecutor in the impeachment trial of Gov. Evan Mecham. Mr. Eckstein taught Constitutional Law at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University from 2016 through 2022 as an adjunct professor.

Paul Charlton

Partner, Dentons US LLP

Paul Charlton is a member of Dentons’ White Collar and Government Investigations practice, representing Fortune 500 companies and corporate executives in high-profile complex litigation, internal investigations and white-collar criminal defense matters. A former career prosecutor, who served both as an Assistant US Attorney and the US Attorney for Arizona, Paul is a seasoned trial lawyer with deep roots in the legal community. In the white-collar arena, Paul has successfully defended international corporations and high-net-worth individuals who were the target of government investigations.

Clients seek out Paul’s representation for his proven track record in obtaining declinations and because the best outcomes are those in which his clients are never charged, and their identities never publicly disclosed. Chambers USA, Best Lawyers in America, Southwest Super Lawyers and Benchmark Litigation consistently place Paul in the top tier of white-collar practitioners. Chambers USA, which ranks Paul in Band 1, noted that Paul is an "exceptionally talented lawyer” who is “as good as they come” and that he “consistently exhibits excellent judgment."

In a recent edition, Chambers described Paul as, “a renowned white-collar criminal defense attorney whose experience also extends to high-stakes external investigations.” Paul has provided expert testimony on prosecutor ethics in high profile matters and teaches the subject at the University of Arizona College of Law. In the field of Native American law, Paul represents tribes and tribal leaders on nationally reported matters. Best Lawyers named Paul "Lawyer of the Year" in Native American Law in both its 2019 and 2022 editions. Only a single lawyer per practice and geographic area is so recognized.

Paul and his wife of 36 years have two grown sons. Together they own and operate a cattle ranch in north-eastern Arizona.