Crowded field seeking Family Court Department A seat in November

A crowded field of six candidates are running for an open seat in Clark County Family Court.

Department A was subject to a special filing period following June’s primary after Family Court Judge William Voy announced his retirement.

Attorneys Kristine Brewer, Lynn Hughes, David Jacks, Stephanie Keels, Robert Kurth and Mari Parlade will all appear on the ballot in November’s general election.

Lynn Hughes

Hughes, 53, graduated from Indiana University School of Law in 1997. He started as an insurance defense attorney but has spent most of his career in family law, Hughes said.

He has served as a pro tem judge for 18 years, overseeing family court cases, small claims court and traffic court, he said. The Nevada Supreme Court also appointed him to serve on the Permanent Guardianship Commission, he said.

“I believe I have the proper temperament for Family Court,” Hughes said.

In May 2021, Hughes received a letter of reprimand from the Nevada State Bar after he failed to file a motion on behalf of a client and only issued a partial refund, according to the letter.

Hughes said the client was a friend of his, and that he “let her down.”

“I try very hard to practice to make sure all of my clients are cared for and taken care of, but unfortunately I don’t please everybody and I didn’t please her,” he said.

In 2014, Hughes ran for Family Court Department C but lost in the primary. He ran for Family Court Department M in 2020 and received 49.5 percent of the vote in the general election, loosing to Family Court Judge Amy Mastin.

David Jacks

Jacks, 43, is a family law attorney who has practiced for just over 10 years, primarily in divorce and child custody cases. He was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army in 2001 and worked in the construction industry before graduating from Phoenix School of Law in 2010. Jacks said his experience with his own divorce and child custody case led him to pursue family law.

“I decided that if I can protect my son, then maybe I can protect others as well,” Jacks said. “And so I went ahead and decided to devote my life to doing that.”

Jacks is also currently a pro tem hearing master in District Court, overseeing temporary protective order cases.

If elected, Jacks said he would like to make settlement conferences more frequently available so that cases can move through the family court system more efficiently. Settlement conferences, where both parties meet with a judge to try to come to a resolution in a case, ensure that only cases that have to go to trial reach that stage, Jacks said.

“It’s always best, in my opinion, to have people deciding their own lives,” he said.

Mari Parladé

Parladé, 46, is currently the legal and strategic initiatives manager for the Clark County Family Services’ legal division, which she was hired to create in 2013, she said. She graduated from University of San Diego School of Law in 2002, and was licensed to practice law in Nevada in 2004.

Parladé said she moved to Las Vegas from California specifically to practice family law, and was first sworn in as a judge pro tem in 2009. Parladé said she has served as an alternate hearing master overseeing child abuse and neglect, truancy, delinquency, domestic violence and drug court cases.

“I’ve seen it all,” she said. “I’m not naive to all the different variables and elements that come in and affect our families.”

If elected, Parladé said she would want to work towards increasing public confidence in the judiciary system.

“We need to do a better job as judges to definitely apply the laws to the facts, but do it with a heart of compassion, do it with integrity, and do it with the independence and confidence needed.”

Other candidates

Kristine Brewer, Stephanie Keels and Robert Kurth did not reply to multiple interview requests.

Brewer attended the Thomas Jefferson School of Law and has been a member of the State Bar of Nevada since 2004, according to the bar’s website, which indicates she works with the Legal Aid Center of Southern Nevada. Keels attended the California Western School of Law and has been a member of the bar since 2000, according to the organization’s website.

This race will be the twelfth time Kurth has run for office since 2000, according to Clark County Election Department records. Kurth has previously lost races for Family Court departments M, D, L and I; Justice of the Peace Departments 15, 9, 5, and 7; Municipal Court Department 3 and 2, and District Court Department 11.

Kurth graduated from the University of Denver College of Law in 1991, according to his law firm’s website, and has been a member of the State Bar of Nevada since 1992.

In 2017, he received a public letter of reprimand from the State Bar of Nevada. Kurth “voluntarily, actively complied” with an investigation, which found that he was negligent in his record keeping regarding his trust account, according to the letter.

A previous version of this story incorrectly identified the Department A judge who announced his retirement this year. It also misstated the year that Parladé was licensed to practice law in Nevada.

Contact Katelyn Newberg at knewberg@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0240. Follow @k_newberg on Twitter.