Judge Tina Talim relies on Indian-American heritage to retain seat in Nevada’s 8th Judicial District

In June, Tina Talim was appointed to Nevada’s Eighth Judicial District Court, becoming the first Native American to hold a judicial position in the state. She joined Department 14 in the busy Eighth District, “where 58 judges preside over nearly 100,000 criminal, civil and family cases each year,” according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

Now that she has been named to an elected role to replace Adriana Escobar, Talim must defend her seat in the Nov. 5 election. She is on the ballot alongside Alan Lefebvre, who served as the 89th president of the State Bar of Nevada.

The Indian-born Talim most recently served as team chief of the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Unit in the Clark County District Attorney’s Office. She was “one of the longest-serving team chiefs in the District Attorney’s Office, prosecuting more than 5,000 crimes during her tenure,” according to her official profile.

Talim told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that her priority is to ensure that the district court continues to hear cases without delays. Talim has spent time as a prosecutor and judge meeting with community members and told the publication that it’s her responsibility to make sure voters know her background and values. She said she feels this sense of opportunity, particularly in Clark County, where she chose to live after leaving Southern California, where her parents opened the first Indian restaurant in West Los Angeles.

She realizes that being an Indian-American judge in the state of Nevada is a great honor, but also a lot of pressure. “Although the historic nature of her potential appointment did not motivate her to run for a district judge position,” she told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that she was “conscious” of what it could symbolize. “I get to be a role model for the next generation of lawyers and the next generation of judges.” In addition to being a role model for young girls across the region, she hopes her daughters — who are 17-year-old twins — will see her as one, too. When they hope to go to medical school instead of law school, she hopes “they, too, will break down barriers.”

Talim immigrated to the United States as a young child. She attended the University of California, Los Angeles, and then Pepperdine School of Law. While in law school, she clerked for the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office, where she conducted several preliminary hearings and presided over two felony cases, including a murder trial. In her third year of law school, she worked for a family law and estate planning firm. After graduating, she worked for a civil litigation firm specializing in personal injury and mass tobacco lawsuits.

Talim moved to Las Vegas in 2004 and, after passing her bar exam, began her career in civil litigation, focusing on medical negligence defense. In August 2005, she began what would become a nearly two-decade career with the Clark County District Attorney’s Office. She wanted the office to both change its makeup and increase community involvement with Clark County’s diverse population, she told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “When you have an office that looks like the community it serves, that builds trust with the community.”

After several years on a general trial team, where she tried 35 jury trials, including murder, sexual assault, crimes against children, and robbery, Talim was promoted to the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Unit, where she was tasked with leading a team focused on prosecuting domestic and international drug cartels.

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In 2023, Talim was tasked with leading all community outreach efforts for the Attorney General’s Office. She “worked with local organizations to encourage first-generation college students to consider a career in law and helped develop scholarships for law students, as well as focusing on educating our youth about drug abuse and overdose prevention,” according to her profile.

Talim is a two-time recipient of the Prosecutor of the Year award and was the first civilian to receive the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’s Exemplary Service Award for her prosecution of a notorious local gang. In 2012, she received the Outstanding Investigative Effort Award from President Barack Obama’s office for her efforts to prosecute one of Nevada’s most prolific drug cartels. She has been a guest speaker at the William S. Boyd School of Law, the University of Nevada Las Vegas, and various community organizations.

(Top photo, Tina Talim/Facebook)