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.