Alaska has two new judges this week, after Gov. Mike Dunleavy appointed RuthAnne Beach to the Alaska Court of Appeals and John Haley to the Anchorage District Court, filling key vacancies in the state’s judiciary. Both were among the finalists recommended to the governor by the Alaska Judicial Council, the constitutionally established body that screens and forwards judicial applicants.
Beach has practiced law for 12 years and most recently served as the Deputy Chief of the Office of Criminal Appeals in Anchorage, where she helped oversee the state’s criminal appellate litigation. In her biographical statement to the Judicial Council, Beach said she grew up in Bend, Oregon, and graduated from Southern Oregon University with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. She studied abroad at the University of London in England, and while attending Thomas Jefferson School of Law she discovered a passion for appellate work. She wrote that she was president of her school’s moot court team, a member of the alternative dispute resolution team, and completed internships with a private civil firm, the San Diego Public Defenders, and the California Department of Justice.
After graduating from law school, Beach moved to Alaska in 2013 and worked in civil practice at Bankston, Gronning, O’Hara, P.C. for three years before joining the State of Alaska’s Department of Law in the Office of Criminal Appeals. She has been with that office for eight years and now serves as its Deputy Chief. Beach noted that she is married and has four children.
Haley, appointed to the Anchorage District Court, has also practiced law for 12 years. He most recently served as a Senior Assistant Attorney General in the Department of Law’s Civil Division, where he handled consumer protection matters. In his biography, Haley wrote that he grew up in North Carolina and attended Appalachian State University.
Before entering law school, he worked as a graduate assistant basketball coach at The Citadel and served as an AmeriCorps VISTA volunteer with the Montana Legal Services Association. He graduated cum laude from the University of Michigan Law School in 2013 and moved to Alaska with his wife, Alysa.
Haley began his legal career with two clerkships—first with the Sitka Superior Court, then with the Alaska Court of Appeals. He later served as a prosecutor with the Office of Special Prosecutions and the Anchorage District Attorney’s Office before transitioning to the state’s Civil Division, where he has spent the last six years. He said he enjoys hiking and cross-country skiing.
Under Alaska’s judicial selection system, the Alaska Judicial Council evaluates all judicial applicants through a process that includes extensive applications, background checks, writing samples, surveys of practicing attorneys, and public comment. The Council then interviews candidates and votes on a slate of finalists to forward to the governor, who must choose from that list within 45 days or the chief justice makes the appointment. The Alaska Judicial Council, established by the Alaska Constitution, is dominated by the Alaska Bar Association, which swings to the left politically. The governor has very little actual say in the matter.
