Hon. John Steven McGroarty

John Steven McGroarty was a longtime Nevada attorney and jurist whose legal career in Southern Nevada spanned more than four decades. A member of the first freshman class at Bishop Gorman High School in Las Vegas, he went on to attend the University of Notre Dame and completed his legal education at law school in Washington, D.C., graduating in 1969. He was admitted to the State Bar of Nevada that same year, on November 10, 1969.

Before taking the bench, McGroarty worked in the Washington office of U.S. Senator Howard Cannon, served with the Democratic National Committee, and took part in Hubert Humphrey's 1968 presidential campaign. Returning to Las Vegas, he clerked for Judge John Mendoza, practiced law alongside Oscar Goodman and future Nevada Governor and U.S. Senator Richard Bryan, and served as an administrative assistant to Governor Mike O'Callaghan.

McGroarty was appointed a Justice of the Peace in 1978 and elected the same year, then became a Clark County District Court judge in 1982, serving until his retirement in 2006 and continuing as a senior judge thereafter. He supervised the juvenile court, was a driving force behind the creation of Family Court, and helped establish Southern Nevada's Mental Health Court, over which he presided until about 2012 - a treatment program from which hundreds of participants have graduated. He was remembered by colleagues for his kindness. He died at his Las Vegas home at the age of 80.