Elizabeth LaMacchia Halverson

Elizabeth Ann LaMacchia Halverson was raised in a working-class Italian family in San Francisco and went on to build a legal career that spanned two states. She earned her juris doctorate from the University of Southern California in 1980 and began her professional life practicing transactional law in California. In 1995 she relocated to Las Vegas, where she served as a law clerk to District Judge Don Chairez, who regarded her as a gifted legal mind.

She was admitted to the State Bar of Nevada on September 28, 1992. In the years that followed she worked within the Eighth Judicial District Court, preparing briefs and legal research for a variety of judges as a staff clerk and staff attorney. Drawn to public service, she twice sought elected judicial office, and in 2006 she won a seat in the newly created Department 23 of the Clark County District Court. She was sworn in that December and heard her first trial in January 2007.

Colleagues who worked alongside her recalled a determined advocate with a strong command of the law and a fighting spirit forged early in life. Elizabeth LaMacchia Halverson died in Las Vegas on March 1, 2014, at the age of 56.