Linley Wilson

Unit Chief Counsel

Arizona Attorney General's Office

Linley graduated summa cum laude from Arizona State University with Bachelor of Arts degrees in Political Science and Italian.  She obtained her J.D. with pro bono distinction from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law in 2008, where she served on the Arizona State Law Journal as an articles editor and staff writer.  Linley completed a judicial clerkship at the Arizona Court of Appeals for the Honorable Jon W. Thompson from 2010 to 2011.  From 2011 to 2015, Linley was an Assistant Attorney General in the Criminal Appeals Section (“CAS”) of the Attorney General’s Office, and then mentored and supervised other AAGs in CAS as Unit Chief Counsel from 2015 to 2019.  The work of attorneys in CAS primarily consists of representing the State of Arizona in felony criminal cases in state appellate proceedings and representing the Director of the Arizona Department of Corrections in habeas corpus proceedings in federal courts.  In 2016, Linley received a Leadership in Action award for the Solicitor General’s Office for serving as Acting Section Chief of CAS for about four months. 

In 2019, Linley joined the Appeals and Constitutional Litigation Division of the Office, where she currently serves as a Deputy Solicitor General and the Government Accountability Unit (“GAU”) Chief Counsel.  GAU’s responsibilities include civil enforcement of state law relating to public bodies, public monies, and state election law. GAU investigates and litigates: 1) violations of state law by counties, cities, and towns under A.R.S. § 41-194.01; 2) illegal payments of public monies; 3) open-meeting law violations; 4) violations of school procurement regulations and laws; 5) civil enforcement of election laws, including failure-to-file referrals for candidates and lobbyists; 6) quo warranto actions; and 7) other actions for declaratory and injunctive relief.  Linley also personally handles investigations and litigation on these topics that involve significant constitutional, statutory, and/or rule interpretation, or institutional issues, advises the executive office on various issues in criminal and civil cases, drafts and reviews Attorney General opinions, and writes amicus briefs on behalf of the Attorney General’s Office for cases pending in state and federal courts. 

Linley is a frequent CLE presenter for the Arizona Prosecuting Attorneys’ Advisory Council.  In 2019, Governor Douglas A. Ducey appointed Linley to the Arizona Commission on Appellate Court Appointments, which is responsible for vetting, interviewing, and nominating candidates to the Governor for judicial vacancies on the state’s appellate courts.