PHOENIX — Gov. Doug Ducey picked an attorney who represents employers in lawsuits filed by workers to be the newest Arizona Supreme Court justice.
While Kathryn Hackett King is relatively unknown to the public, she previously worked on the governor’s staff.
She served as his deputy legal counsel from 2015 to 2017 before becoming a partner at BurnsBarton, a female-owned law firm in Phoenix.
And last year Ducey, her fellow Republican, tapped her to serve on the Arizona Board of Regents.
He praised her judicial philosophy and experience.
“Kate’s strong belief in the separation of powers and experience serving in all three branches of government will serve the people of Arizona well,” Ducey said Thursday in a prepared statement. “I have witnessed her intelligence and wisdom firsthand, and I know she is well-respected in the legal field.”
Her judicial branch experience includes having been a clerk early in her career for Michael Ryan when he was a justice on the state Supreme Court.
The pick, the sixth for Ducey, follows the retirement earlier this year of Justice Andrew Gould, who is running for for attorney general. The seven-member court still has five Ducey appointees, however, as Gould was also a Ducey pick.
Including King, four of Ducey’s appointees to the high court have no judicial experience. Clint Bolick was an attorney for the Goldwater Foundation, John R. Lopez IV worked in the Attorney General’s Office, and Bill Montgomery was a Maricopa County attorney.
Ducey noted King was one of seven people nominated by the Commission on Appellate Court Appointments. That panel has to screen all would-be justices and the governor is required to choose from that list.
The governor said the commission has always given him “incredibly talented choices’’ from which to choose.
“I, along with my team, determined she would be the best future justice to serve on the Arizona Supreme Court,” he said.
He said he does not consider prior judicial experience a requirement.
“We do look for diversity in terms of background and service in the law,” he said. “And Kate brings that private-sector experience as well.”
Ducey said he also was swayed by her experience clerking for Ryan as well as serving as a legal fellow, also early in her career, in the office of then-Sen. Jon Kyl.
The appointment of King as only the fifth woman to serve on the state’s high court also adds diversity.
King also noted on her application that her maternal grandmother is Hispanic.
In describing her practice, King told the commission that virtually all of her practice is involved in representing private and public employers in labor and employment litigation and related civil and commercial matters. She also said she has counseled employers on related issues.
Among the issues she said she has handled are discrimination, harassment, retaliation, drug testing, accommodating people with disabilities, and medical marijuana in the workplace.
King said she also has been involved in wage-and-hour law disputes and handling restrictive covenants like precluding workers from going into competition with the firm that had employed them.
Her appointment is effective at the end of the month.
