Barbara LaWall was elected in 1996 as the first woman to serve as Pima County attorney.She has been re-elected since then, most recently in 2016. Since then, she has led the state in creating and implementing innovative programs to protect children, such as the SafeBaby program and the AMBER Missing Child Alert.
Formerly an English teacher, Barbara LaWall moved steadily up the ladder until she had the office’s top job — Pima County attorney. 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.
As Pima County Attorney, Barbara LaWall holds criminals accountable, prevents crime, provides quality victim services and runs a cost-effective office that has the highest trial rate of any Arizona prosecutor’s office. She developed and created an innovative Community Prosecution Unit that assists landlords with criminal evictions, runs a nationally studied and recognized truancy enforcement program, operates School Multi-Agency Response teams at each local school district and has established numerous neighborhood Community Justice Boards.
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