73°F
weather icon Windy

Berkley, Wilson vie for seat as justice of the peace in Department 7

In the race for Las Vegas Township Justice of the Peace Department 7, voters will decide between a chief deputy public defender and a Las Vegas personal injury attorney with prior experience as a prosecutor.

Max Berkley, 39, has been with the Clark County public defender’s office since 2011. His opponent, Amy Wilson, 51, currently works in private practice handling personal injury and civil litigation cases.

Berkley grew up in Las Vegas, graduated from Bonanza High School and spent a year after college as a staff assistant for the late Sen. Harry Reid in Washington, D.C. Berkley graduated from Boyd Law School in 2009 before joining the public defender’s office. He’s the son of former Nevada Rep. Shelley Berkley.

Wilson graduated from the Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University in 1998. In 2000, she had a private criminal defense practice in Redwood City, California. She also worked as a prosecutor in Arizona and California before moving to Nevada. She was admitted to the state bar in 2014, and has presided over criminal and civil trials in Las Vegas Justice Court since December 2020, when she was appointed a judge pro-tem.

Wilson says her combined civil and criminal law experience makes her an ideal candidate for the job. If elected, she says, she’ll run an efficient courtroom that treats everyone with respect and dignity.

“I would hope that any person that comes into my courtroom, even if the decision doesn’t go the way they hope it would, that they would at least leave the courtroom feeling that they had been heard,” she said.

Berkeley says his experience as a deputy public defender has prepared him well for a seat on the bench.

“My background and my practice at the public defender’s office makes me confident that I understand what I’m getting into, and I certainly have the experience to be an effective justice of the peace,” he said.

Berkley says he would like to expand drug treatment programs in Justice Court and, if elected, will focus on fairness, “making sure that everybody gets treated a certain way, gets treated with dignity.”

Contact Glen A. Meek at gmeek@reviewjournal.com or 602-380-8951. Follow @GlenMeekLV on Twitter.

THE LATEST
Nevadans support diaper tax exemption, state lottery

A public opinion poll on how Nevadans are feeling about several ballot questions found majority support a tax exemption for diapers, open primaries and ranked choice voting, and enshrining abortion rights into the constitution.

Former senator, VP candidate Joe Lieberman dies at 82

Joe Lieberman nearly won the vice presidency on the Democratic ticket with Al Gore in 2000 and almost became Republican John McCain’s running mate in 2008.

Aging Hoover Dam may get $45M for maintenance

It will take tens of millions of dollars to repair and improve the dam over the next 10 years, officials estimate.

Judge issues gag order in Donald Trump’s hush money case

It prohibits the former president from attacking key figures in the case, like his former lawyer-turned-nemesis Michael Cohen or porn star Stormy Daniels.

Why RFK Jr. might not be on Nevada’s ballot

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s campaign said it had enough signatures to appear on Nevada’s ballot, but the petition didn’t name a vice president, as state law requires.

 
Nevada terminates grants to immunization nonprofit

A nonprofit will have grants terminated after state officials say it failed to pay over $400,000 to vendors despite the state reimbursing it for those payments.