The Honorable Peter J. Eckerstrom was selected chief judge of the Arizona Court of Appeals Division Two. This division reviews superior court judgments from seven counties in Arizona. Eckerstrom, who resides in Tucson, was first appointed as a judge to the Arizona Court of Appeals in 2003. He was elected vice-chief judge in 2009 and chief judge in 2014. He also serves on the Arizona Commission on Judicial Conduct and has served on the Arizona Commission on Judicial Performance Review. He is currently acting as an adjunct professor at the University of Arizona College of Law, teaching a course on capital punishment.

At the time of his original appointment to the appeals court, then-Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano said, “Peter Eckerstrom is an extraordinary legal talent. … We are fortunate to have someone of his abilities on the Court of Appeals.”

Prior to his career on the appeals court, Eckerstrom served as a public defender from 1988 to 1994 and in private criminal defense practice from 1994 to 2003. He earned his undergraduate degree at Yale University before attending Stanford Law School. He has also been selected as one of 20 judges to attend an LLM program in judicial studies at Duke Law School along with his fellow Stanford Law alum, Diane Johnsen, JD ’82.