The Hon. Nancy M. Saitta (Ret.) was a justice of the Supreme Court of Nevada. She was first elected to the seat in 2006 and was retained in 2012. She retired from its bench in 2016. After her retirement, she continued to preside as a senior judge.
Saitta received a B.S. from Wayne State University in 1983. She went on to earn a J.D. from Wayne State University Law School in 1986.
Before assuming the Superior Court bench, she had served as an Eighth Judicial District Court judge after being elected to the seat in 1998. Saitta also served as a municipal court judge with the Las Vegas Municipal Court beginning in 1996.
While on the District Court, she was appointed by former Governor Kenny Guinn to serve on the Nevada State Juvenile Justice Commission, thereby creating the Clark County Missing and Exploited Children Comprehensive Action Program, which coordinated efforts with the U.S. Department of Justice. In acknowledgment of this, she received the For the Children Award from the Office of the Attorney General. In addition, Saitta also received the District Attorney Outstanding Service Award and the Child Advocate of the Year Award. Saitta was also credited with developing the Southern Nevada Fatality Review Team and the Complex Litigation Division, which provided case management of voluminous cases such as construction defects. Following its creation, the Division received national recognition, and Saitta went on to become a presenter to the Brookings Institute regarding judicial training on complex case litigation. She also created the Professional Summit.
On the Supreme Court, Saitta served as its chief justice from 2011 to 2012. She was chair of the Judicial Public Information Committee and co-chair of the Commission on Statewide Juvenile Justice Reform. While chair of the Judicial Public Information Committee, she helped expand Law Day activities in the State. In addition, she chaired the Nevada Court Improvement Program, the Blue Ribbon for Kids Commission, and the Coalition to Combat Criminal Sexual Exploitation of Children.
Prior to her judicial career, she had worked as a criminal defense attorney in Detroit Michigan, before relocating to Las Vegas. Once there, Saitta first joined Pearson & Patton, where she practiced until then becoming an associate at Gentile & Porter.
She would later leave the private sector to work as a senior deputy attorney general and children’s advocate for the Nevada Attorney General’s Office.
Saitta received the Angels in Adoption Award from the U.S. Congress in 2000.
Over the course of her legal and judicial career, she taught litigation courses at the American Institute for Paralegal Studies, taught in the criminal justice department of the University of Phoenix, and at Wayne State University’s Department of Criminal Justice.