Hon. Karen S. Adam

Karen Adam retired from the bench in November 2015 after 34 years of service as a Tucson City Court Magistrate, a Superior Court Commissioner, and a Superior Court Judge. As presiding judge of the Pima County Juvenile Court (PCJCC) from 2011-2014, Judge Adam led the effort to convert PCJCC to a trauma-responsive court. Judge Adam is a member of the Self-Represented Litigants Network, the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (NCJFCJ), the Arizona and National Chapters of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts. She is president of the board of the Children’s Center for Law and Policy and teaches and consults on Family Treatment Drug Court grants and programs. Judge Adam writes and lectures on juvenile and family law topics and has served as faculty for the National Judicial College since 2007 and as a Professor or Practice for the University of Arizona Rogers College of Law since 2018. Recently, Judge Adam developed the curriculum to train lay legal advocates in i4J’s Licensed Legal Advocate Pilot Program.