Jerome T. Tao serves on the Nevada Court of Appeals. He was appointed to the Court of Appeals, Department 1, by Governor Brian Sandoval in December 2014.
Judge Tao was appointed by Governor Sandoval in January 2011 to the Eighth Judicial District Court. As a District Court Judge, he earned a retention rating of 86 in the December 2013 Las Vegas Review-Journal "Judging the Judges" survey, which was the fourth-highest score among the 32 judges in the civil-criminal division of the Eighth Judicial District Court. In 2014, Judge Tao was re-elected in a landslide, winning more than 67% of the vote.
Previously he served at various times as a Clark County Deputy District Attorney, Chief Deputy Public Defender, as a civil attorney in private practice. He has been active in a variety of community organizations including Leadership Las Vegas, Focus Las Vegas, the Asian Chamber of Commerce, AAG, and the UNLV Vice-President's Commission on Diversity.
Judge Tao is a graduate of Cornell University (B.S. 1989) and the George Washington University (J.D. 1992, with honors), where he served on the Law Review and the Moot Court Board.