Judge Abbi Silver

Abbi Silver is the first female to serve as Chief Judge of the Nevada Court of Appeals. Then in 2018, she was elected to the Nevada Supreme Court.

Justice Silver’s Nevada roots took hold when her father set up his medical practice in Boulder City in 1973. The Silvers were likely the only Jewish family at the time. Eventually the family moved into Las Vegas, where she graduated from Clark High School and then University of Nevada, Las Vegas (1986).

Always an overachiever, she worked multiple jobs—waitress, Utah Jazz cheerleader, dancer—while earning her undergraduate degree and then her law degree from Southwestern University of Law, in Los Angeles (1989).

Justice Silver was a law clerk for Honorable Earle White, Jr., before joining the Clark County District Attorney’s Office. Her fourteen-year prosecutor career included being assigned as the Chief Deputy DA for the Special Victims Unit where she tried more than one hundred jury trials. She worked alongside or across the courtroom from an illustrious list of local attorneys such as Stewart Bell and Oscar Goodman. She calls Judge Nancy Oesterle her mentor.

Silver came to understand the harsh realities of victims of domestic violence and stalking. Her cases included that of the stalking of comedian Jerry Lewis, Senator Harry Reid and many others. Then in 2003, she was elected to the Las Vegas Municipal Court and in 2006, she served the Las Vegas Justice Court. In 2009 and 2014, she was elected to the Eighth Judicial District Court and in 2014 Gov. Brian Sandoval appointed her to the Court of Appeals, Department 3. In 2017, she was appointed to the Nevada Supreme Court.