Aurora Bearse

Professional career

• Aurora R. Bearse is a Commissioner of the Washington State Court of Appeals, Division Two, a position she has held since 2012
• Bearse has published law review articles, presented on appellate practice at CLE seminars, and is completing a certificate in appellate judicial skills from the National Judicial College
• Her legal practice included work as an associate at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP
• She also held the role of a law clerk to Judge Robert R. Beezer (9th Circuit) and Judge William H. Walls (D. N.J.)

Education

Additional information

• handling major securities and bankruptcy litigation, such as the Enron bankruptcy.
• Based at the Court’s Tacoma office, 909 A St., Ste.
• 200, Tacoma, WA 98402.
• Before joining the Court of Appeals, Bearse held the role of an administrative law judge, presiding over hundreds of hearings for state agencies.
• Before law school, she assisted University of Washington law students in securing judicial clerkships.
• Earlier in her career, she was an Assistant Appellate Federal Public Defender in Houston, Texas, arguing over a dozen appeals before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, including a case that led to the reversal of a sixteen‐level sentencing enhancement.
• Bearse graduated with honors from Rutgers Law School, where she was senior articles editor of the law review.
• She is a member of the WSBA’s Access to Justice Board Rules Committee, the court system’s appellate rules committee, and the Gender & Justice Commission’s representative on the statewide court education committee.