Oct. 11, Barbara La Wall
Formerly an English teacher, Barbara LaWall moved steadily up the ladder until 24 years later, she had the office’s top job — Pima County attorney — the first woman elected to hold that position. 
But the school children have not lost a champion. She still considers helping children and working with families one of her top priorities — so much so that she has become a nationally recognized authority on juvenile justice, parental kidnapping and domestic violence
In 1996 Barbara LaWall became the first woman ever to be elected Pima County Attorney. Previously, she had been a Deputy County Attorney for 20 years, during which she prosecuted criminal cases as a trial lawyer; managed the Criminal Division as the Chief Criminal Deputy; and oversaw administrative, budgetary, and policy matters as Chief Deputy County Attorney.
Her Criminal Division targets serious, dangerous, and chronic offenders for maximum prosecution. In addition to having the lowest plea bargaining rate of any Arizona prosecutor's office, her Office has increased the percentage of violent offenders taken to trial from 24% to 67%, a rate unsurpassed by other Arizona prosecutors' offices.
She leads the state in creating programs that protect children, such as the Safe Baby Program and the AMBER Missing Child Alert. She developed an innovative Community Prosecution Unit that assists landlords with criminal evictions, implemented a nationally studied and recognized truancy enforcement program, operates School Multi-Agency Response Teams in each local school district, and has established neighborhood Community Justice Boards that deal with nonviolent juvenile offenders in a non-court setting.
A nationally recognized expert on criminal prosecution issues, Barbara LaWall has been appointed to numerous commissions and task forces. She is a current member and past chair of the Arizona Criminal Justice Commission and currently serves on the Arizona Prosecuting Attorneys' Advisory Council. In 2003, she was appointed by Governor Janet Napolitano to chair the search committee for the new director of the Arizona Department of Corrections and, in 2006, chaired the statewide Methamphetamine Task Force.
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