Chief Justice David K. Thomson was appointed to the New Mexico Supreme Court in January 2019, and was sworn in as Chief Justice on April 17, 2024. In 2019, he founded a diversity clerkship program with the New Mexico State Bar Association and successfully launched an annual “Rule of Law Program” where schools and students in New Mexico are given the opportunity to view oral arguments in an effort to advance civics education.

Chief Justice Thomson was born and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He has an undergraduate degree in Economics and Government from Wesleyan University and received his juris doctorate from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law. Chief Justice Thomson began his career as a term law clerk for U.S. District Justice Bruce D. Black after which he joined the NM Attorney General’s Office as a litigation attorney, eventually serving as Deputy Attorney General. Before his appointment to the Supreme Court, he served as a district court judge in the First Judicial District Court.

Chief Justice Thomson serves on the Executive Committee of the ABA Judicial Division Appellate Judges Conference and Appellate Judges Education Institute and is an AJC Delegate to the ABA House of Delegates. Justice Thomson authored the article Constitutional Long Haulers: The Undiagnosed Long-Term Impact of Judicial Review on Emergency Public Health Orders, appearing in the ABA Judge’s Journal.