Justice Elissa F. Cadish

Justice Cadish graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania, receiving her Bachelor of Arts degree with honors in Political Science. She received her law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law, where she was a member of the Virginia Law Review and was honored to be awarded the Order of the Coif. After graduation, she moved to Las Vegas and clerked for two years for Hon. Philip M. Pro in the United States District Court for the District of Nevada.

She then entered private practice where she focused on commercial litigation and employment law. In 2007, she was appointed by Governor Jim Gibbons to fill a District Judge vacancy in the Eighth Judicial District Court for Clark County, Nevada, where she presided over civil and criminal cases. In 2018, she was elected to the Nevada Supreme Court and began her term as part of Nevada’s first-ever female majority Nevada Supreme Court on January 7, 2019. She was re-elected in 2024 and served as Chief Justice that year.

Justice Cadish has been very active in the legal community, as well as the community at large. She is a past President of the Howard D. McKibben Chapter of the American Inn of Court, a recipient of the Clark County Bar Association’s Ambassador of the Year, a longstanding judge of the high school We the People competition and advisory board member for the Nevada Center for Civic Engagement, a recipient of the Trial by Peers Judge of the Year, a past President of the Southern Nevada Association of Women Attorneys, a Congregation Ner Tamid honoree as a Woman of Valor, a Southern Nevada Hadassah gala honoree, an advisory Board member for the Jewish Family Service Agency in Las Vegas, and a recipient of the Clark County Law Foundation’s Liberty Bell Award. In August 2022, Justice Cadish was honored by Nevada Business magazine as a Woman to Watch, and she was honored by the Las Vegas Weekly magazine as a Woman Inspiring Nevada in 2024.

Justice Cadish is also the past co-chair of the Nevada Supreme Court’s Access to Justice Commission and currently chairs the Court Improvement Program Select Committee.