Hon. Jessica M. Lorello

Judge Jessica M. Lorello was appointed to the Idaho Court of Appeals by Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter in 2017. She was reelected to her seat in 2024 and is currently serving her third term on the Court of Appeals.

Judge Lorello is a fifth-generation Idahoan and a graduate of Boise High School. She earned a bachelor’s degree in business management from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, followed by a master’s degree in health care administration and a Juris Doctor from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

During law school, Judge Lorello spent her summers externing at the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boise and the Ada County Prosecutor’s Office. After graduating, she moved back to Idaho to work in private practice at Givens Pursley LLP, where she focused on health care transactional work and general litigation.

In 2004, Judge Lorello joined the Criminal Law Division of the Idaho Attorney General’s Office, where she served in the Appellate and Capital Litigation Units in addition to occasionally assisting the Special Prosecution Unit. While at the Attorney General’s Office, she handled hundreds of appeals and numerous habeas cases and represented the State of Idaho in occasional federal district court cases. She also wrote a petition for certiorari and an amicus brief for cases in the United States Supreme Court.

In addition to her work on the Court of Appeals, Judge Lorello serves on the Law Foundation’s Law Related Education Committee and is a founding member of Attorneys for Civic Education. She is an active volunteer for several law-related and civics education programs for Idaho’s youth, including Idaho High School Mock Trial, 4-H Know Your Government, We the People, and the YMCA’s Youth in Government program, where she has served as a member of the statewide planning committee since 2017.

Judge Lorello has also served as an adjunct professor at the University of Idaho College of Law, teaching courses in legal writing, legal research, evidence, advanced advocacy, professional responsibility, state constitutional law, and the lawyering process from trial through appeal. She is the author of the Idaho Evidence Manual and contributed the final chapter to Tents to Towers: The History of the Practice of Law in Idaho.

Judge Lorello’s professional and community contributions have been recognized with several honors. She received the Idaho State Bar’s Service Award in 2018 and its Distinguished Juror Award in 2026. That same year, she was honored with the YMCA’s Service to Youth Award, and the Idaho Women Lawyers Organization recognized her exemplary mentorship with their Setting the Bar Award.

Judge Lorello resides in Meridian with her son and their pets, Violet the golden retriever and Harry the once-feral cat. She spends her free time volunteering in civics education, enjoying time with friends and family, and watching or listening to baseball.