Meet the People: Justice Elissa Cadish

Advisory Board Member Justice Elissa Cadish shares her background with our We the People Program and her vision for the future of NVCCE.

“Civic Engagement is essential to maintaining our system of government. Our democracy only works if we pay attention, analyze issues, form and express our opinions, and vote!”

Justice Cadish grew up in New York and New Jersey, attended college at the University of Pennsylvania where she majored in Political Science with a concentration in American Government, then went to law school at the University of Virginia. She moved to Nevada after law school to clerk for then-United States District Judge Philip Pro and then was in private practice until 2007 when she was appointed as a Clark County District Judge. Justice Cadish has been a member of our female majority Nevada Supreme Court since January 2019. Besides involvement with NVCCE, she is the co-chair of the Nevada Children's Commission, sits on the Nevada Judicial Historical Society and the Access to Justice Commission, and is involved in the Jewish Family Service Agency, American Association of Jewish Lawyers and Judges, and her synagogue. As a past president of the Southern Nevada Association of Women Attorneys, Justice Cadish is still an active member of that group as well as the Howard D. McKibben Chapter of the American Inns of Court.

Q&A with Justice Cadish

What brought you to NVCCE?

Judge Pro! For many years he was responsible for bringing in judges for the We the People competition and he asked me to judge when I was his law clerk. I loved it so much, I am still involved over 30 years later!

What do you love most about the work you do with our civic engagement programs?

I love seeing our young people gain a real knowledge and understanding of our Constitutional principles and engage in intelligent debate about the application of those principles to current events and issues. It gives me hope for our future every time.

What is your vision of NVCCE in the future?

I would like to continue to get more students involved in the various programs NVCCE supports, and get media coverage of those events. We need to support the teaching of civics in Nevada's public schools at all levels and throughout the state.