Attorney Profiles

Kent E. Turley began as an associate with Snell & Wilmer, P.C. in September 1972. He was an associate at Fennemore Craig, P.C. from April 1974 until March 1976. He has been a member of Turley, Swan, Childers, & Torrens, P.C. and its predecessors since October 1977.

Education and Honors:

Kent graduated with distinction from Arizona State University in English in 1969, and cum laude from ASU Law School in 1972.

Kent has been AV rated by Martindale Hubbell since 1986. He was chosen by his attorney peers for 2007 for Arizona/New Mexico SuperLawyers Professional Liability Defense.

Trial Experience:

Kent is an associate of ABOTA with approximately 30 jury trials ranging in length from 1-2 days to 7 weeks in both Superior Court and District Court. Those trials have involved property damage, personal injuries, death, and economic losses stemming from motor vehicles, premises, products, firearms, fires, legal and healthcare malpractice, sexual assault, commercial disputes, and a wide variety of other civil tort claims. He is admitted to practice law in the State of Arizona and federal courts.

He has had numerous bench trials. He is well known in Phoenix as an experienced and prepared professional trial lawyer, who cares deeply about his clients and their interests. He is primarily known as an insurance defense lawyer (AADC, DRI), but he also has considerable trial experience in serious plaintiffs’ cases.

Arbitrator and Mediator:

He has served many times as both court appointed and privately appointed arbitrator and mediator for plaintiffs and defendants in a wide variety of civil tort claims.

Cases Involving Professionals:

Since 1977, Kent has defended many attorneys for legal malpractice. He and his firm have numerous reported decisions involving legal malpractice or attorney torts including Amfac v. Miller, 138 Ariz. 155, 673 P.2d 795 (Ariz. App. Div. 1, 1983), approved as supplemented 138 Ariz. 152, 673 P.2d 792 (Ariz. 1983); Hosogai v. Kadota, 145 Ariz. 227, 700 P.2d 1327 (Ariz. 1985); Molever v. Roush, 152 Ariz. 367, 732 P.2d 1105 (Ariz. App. Div. 1, 1987); Safeway Insurance Co. v. Guerrero, 210 Ariz. 5, 106 P.3d 1020 (Ariz. 2005). He represented the plaintiff in Logerquist v. McVey, 196 Ariz. 470, 1 P.3d 113 (Ariz. 2000) involving medical malpractice and the Frye rule. He has defended many lawyers in Bar discipline matters over the past 20 years.

Kent has also defended numerous other professionals and health care providers from doctors, chiropractors, nurses, physician assistants, dentists, psychologists, and accountants in malpractice and/or disciplinary matters. He also occasionally represents plaintiffs against professionals where there are no conflicts.

Community Service:

In the legal community, he has lectured many times on legal malpractice and ethics. He has also taught two breakout sessions in the Bar’s Professionalism Course. For the AADC, he has provided pro bono legal advice to attorneys facing malpractice and disciplinary claims. He has investigated a judge for the Arizona Judicial Commission. He is fluent in Spanish.

Kent comes from prominent Arizona pioneer ancestry. He has lived in Arizona since 1954. He is a third generation lawyer from the Udall family. Kent cares greatly about the law and Arizona.