Hon. Peter Swann (Ret.)

Peter Swann retired as a judge Arizona Court of Appeals in 2022, after fourteen years’ service on that court, including two years as Chief Judge. From 2003-2008 he was a judge of the Maricopa County Superior Court, where he served in the Civil and Family Departments.  From 2006-2008, he served as Associate Civil Presiding Judge and helped develop the court’s electronic filing system. As an attorney in private practice in Phoenix at Steptoe & Johnson, LLP, he represented clients in commercial and constitutional litigation and commercial transactions. 

Swann received his law degree from University of Maryland Law School, where he graduated first in his class in 1991.  After serving as a law clerk to the Hon. Norman P. Ramsey in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, he became a member of the State Bar of Arizona, receiving the highest score on the Arizona bar exam. 

Swann served six years on the Ethics Committee of the State Bar of Arizona, has served for the past 22 years on the Committee on the Rules of Civil Procedure and also served on its Professionalism Committee. In 2013 and 2014, Swann served on a committee tasked with rewriting the Arizona Rules of Civil Appellate Procedure, and in 2015 and 2016 served on the Supreme Court’s Civil Rules Restyling Task Force and Family Rules Restyling Task force. In 2016 and 2017, he served on the Supreme Court’s Civil Justice Reform Commission.  In 2008, Judge Swann was named “Judge of the Year” by the Phoenix Chapter of the Arizona Board of Trial Advocates.  In 2016, Swann was named “Judge of the Year” by the Arizona Supreme Court.  And in 2019, he was named “Judge of the Year” by the Arizona Association of Defense Counsel. Since 2003, Swann has frequently served as a mediator in both appellate and trial court matters in all types of civil and family cases.

• Juris Doctor, 1991, University of Maryland School of Law
• Class Standing 1/262, Order of the Coif
• Highest Score on Arizona Bar Exam, July 1992
• Manuscripts Editor, Maryland Law Review (1990-1991)
• Bachelor of Arts, 1987, University of California at Berkeley
• Double Major: Rhetoric, Economics

• Supreme Court of Arizona (1992)
• Court of Appeals of Maryland (1991)
• United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (1993)
• United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (1992)
• United States District Court for the District of Arizona (1992)
• United States District Court for the District of Maryland (1992)

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