Linda M. Vanzi
Of Counsel
Phone: (505) 768-7262‬
Email: lvanzi@rodey.com
Linda Vanzi joined the Firm’s Complex and Commercial Litigation Group after retiring from the New Mexico Judiciary, where she served for 12 years as a judge on the New Mexico Court of Appeals, including two years as chief judge, following four years of service as a trial judge at the Second Judicial District Court, Civil Division.
 As a judge, Ms. Vanzi handled a full range of civil, criminal, and administrative matters, participating in thousands of written decisions as author and panelist, including as a designated judge on several cases in the New Mexico Supreme Court.  In the course of her career as a judge and attorney, Ms. Vanzi has spoken at countless seminars and served on many committees, including as Chair of the Judiciary Budget Committee, Judicial Education & Training Advisory Committee, Judicial Education Committee, Judicial Continuing Legal Education Committee, and the Uniform Jury Instruction-Civil Committee, as well as Co-Chair of the New Mexico State Bar Association’s Alternative Disputes Resolution Committee. She has also taught many classes in the substantive law, and in trial and appellate procedure and skills. Her classes at UNM School of Law include Federal Jurisdiction, Civil Rights Litigation, Advanced Legal Writing, and Constitutional Law, along with Evidence and Trial Practice, which she has taught since 2001. Ms. Vanzi also is a team-leader and faculty member for the National Institute of Trial Advocacy’s national trial, deposition, and in-house national programs.
Ms. Vanzi is listed in Best Lawyers in America for her professional expertise in Commercial Litigation.
- Â State Bar of New Mexico
- United States District Court, District of New Mexico
- 10th Circuit Court of Appeals
- United States Supreme Court
Other Professional and Community Activities
- Chair, New Mexico Client Protection Fund Commission
- Outpost Performance Space, Board Member
- New Mexico Asian Family Center, Board Member
- Entrepreneurs in Community Lawyering, Steering Committee (2015-2020)
- State of New Mexico Public Employee Labor Relations Board, Vice-Chair, (2003-2004)
- City of Albuquerque, Labor-Management Relations Board, Chair/Neutral Member, (2001-2002)
- TVI Labor Arbitration Board, Chair/Neutral Member, 2000
- Intragovernmental Conference Committee, Member
- University of New Mexico School of Law, J.D
- University of Texas at El Paso, Graduate work, Biology
- Marymount College, B.A. English and French
- 2022 Distinguished Achievement Award, University of New Mexico School of Law
- 2022 Business Lawyer of the Year Award
- 2012 Justice Mary Walters Award
- 2010 Justice Pamela B. Minzner Outstanding Advocacy for Women Award
- 2007 Outstanding Trial Judge, American Board of Trial Advocates, New Mexico Chapter
- 2006 Outstanding Judge of the Year, Albuquerque Bar Association
- 2005 Father Charlie Driscoll Award, Dismas House
- 2000 ACLU Cooperating Attorney of the Year
- Thesis Honors: Terms Limits in New Mexico: Unconstitutional by Proposition
- UNM School of Law, Outstanding Third-Year Student
- UNM School of Law, Honors in Clinical Law
- State Constitutions: A New Frontier in Environmental Litigation? 70 Nat. Resources & Energy L. Inst. 2-1 (2024)
- The New Mexico Civil Rights Act: Look Before You Leap, 54 N.M. L. Rev. 363 (2024)
- Independent Analysis and Interpretation of the New Mexico Constitution: If Not Now, When? 53 N.M. L. Rev. 1 (2023)
- State Constitutional Litigation in New Mexico: All Shield and No Sword, 48 N.M. L. Rev. 302 (2018)
- Freedom at Home Revisited: The New Mexico Equal Rights Amendment after New Mexico Right to Choose/NARAL v. Johnson, 40 N.M. L. Rev. 215 (2010)
- Freedom at Home: State Constitutions and Medicaid Funding for Abortions, 26 N.M. L. Rev. 433
- First Amendment – The Expansion of the Obscenity Doctrine in New Mexico; Is it Tolerable – City of Farmington v. Fawcett, 24 N.M. L. Rev. 505 (1994)
