Appointed Judge And Private Attorney Vie For District Court Seat

By Dana Gentry, Nevada Current

October 11, 2022

Newly appointed Clark County Judge Ellie Roohani faces attorney Anna Albertson in the November general election. Gov. Steve Sisolak appointed Roohani to fill the Dept. 11 vacancy left last year by Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez’s departure. Albertson also applied for the appointment.

Roohani is a graduate of UNLV’s Boyd Law School. She worked as a law clerk in federal court and as a prosecutor for the U.S. Attorney, where she was primarily assigned to sex trafficking cases.

Albertson (who previously practiced under her maiden name Yianna Reizakis) is making another election run for the Clark County bench after losing to Michael Villani in 2020. That year, Albertson, a Democrat, was featured in a counterfeit Nevada Republican Club endorsement ad.

Roohani, who has the Nevada Republican Club’s endorsement this cycle, says the issue is irrelevant to her. “But I think that it’s information that the voters might care about,” she said.

Albertson says voters should be concerned with Roohani’s lack of experience in state court. “She never tried one case in state court before getting this appointment.”

Albertson, a University of Tulsa law school graduate, passed the Nevada Bar in 2006. She says she’s had 50 trials and represented more than one thousand clients, “most from low income or underserved communities,” and on both sides of civil cases. Her criminal law experience is limited to taking cases pro bono. She also sits as a pro tem judge.

Roohani says her own lack of experience trying civil cases has not been a problem. Her docket is 60% civil and 40% criminal. Civil and criminal rules of procedure are “basically the same,” she says, adding she has not had much of a learning curve.

The first-time candidate says she’s not a fan of fundraising.

“It’s got the word ‘fun’ in it, but it’s not fun,” she said, adding she doesn’t “do dial for dollars. I don’t like doing it. I think it’s weird.”

But raising money for judicial races remains a necessary evil in Nevada, she says. Roohani raised $249,604 through June 30, and spent $54,000. She’s endorsed by the Las Vegas Police Protective Association and a number of other law enforcement organizations, according to her website.

“As long as people want to continue to elect their judges, this is going to be how it’s done,” she says of funding campaigns primarily on the contributions of interested parties, i.e., the legal community. “Because there’s really no other way to get your messaging out to the general electorate.”

Roohani says she’d never solicit money from parties with cases pending before her.

In her case, she says, the judicial appointment process was “purely merit based. I literally did not know a single person on that committee. It was my personal experience that it is not a political process.”

“We have a very strong vibe in our state about wanting to have control over what is happening in our lives,” she says, which includes electing judges, and requires an educated electorate.

Albertson says she wishes the appointment process “was more transparent. I don’t feel comfortable commenting on it because I don’t know exactly what happens because you don’t get to see how the panel members vote or why they’re voting that way.”

Albertson raised $15,700 through June, and spent $7,500. She says she’s budgeted $50,000 for the entire campaign. “I don’t think money is the only thing that determines the result in these races,” she said.

She’s endorsed by the Nevada AFL-CIO, Nevada NOW PAC, Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada Action Fund, Independent Black Voters, and a variety of organizations listed on her website.

Albertson says that as a lawyer and short trial judge she’s focused on “getting people to resolution, getting people to solve the problem that they’re facing in court because at the end of the day, nobody really wants to be involved in litigation. It’s stressful and it’s expensive.”

Roohani agrees. She says she encourages parties to resolve their conflicts as often as possible and avoid trial, noting litigants are often people, including family members, “who still have to get along.”

Nevada Current, a nonprofit, online source of political news and commentary, documents the policies, institutions and systems that affect Nevadans’ daily lives. The Current is part of States Newsroom, a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit supported by grants and a coalition of donors and readers.