Retain Judge
Zohra Tourville

About Me: 

Professional Experience: 

I bring more than fifteen years of deep, hands‑on legal experience to the Washington County Circuit Court. I serve as the sitting judge for Position 1, expected to preside over criminal jury trials and drawing on a career shaped by complex litigation, public defense leadership, and judicial service.

I was appointed in 2020 as an Associate Judge for the Beaverton Municipal Court, where I managed a high‑volume docket and presided over jury and bench trials, pretrial conferences, and settlement hearings. I also led the nationally recognized B‑SOBR treatment court, a mentor court selected by ALLRISE for 2025–2027. B‑SOBR focuses on addressing the root causes of addiction for high‑risk, high‑need individuals and has achieved exceptionally low recidivism rates compared to national averages. As a mentor court, we trained treatment courts across Oregon and the nation on the best practice standards we implemented. 

Before my judicial appointment in Beaverton, I served for nearly years at the Clark County Public Defender’s Office, ultimately becoming Chief Deputy Public Defender.

I have experience litigating federal RICO organized crime cases, a federal death penalty case, high‑profile appeals before the Nevada Supreme Court, and thousands of serious felony matters. 

In the early days of my career, I served in Washington, D.C., as a Legislative Fellow for the late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. During that time, I learned firsthand the importance of strong leadership and a deep commitment to public service.

Continuing Education: 

Committed to continued growth in public service, I earned a full scholarship to complete the Senior Executives in State and Local Government program at the Harvard Kennedy School in Boston, joining leaders from across the country to collaborate on complex governance challenges.

Family: 

For six years, I lived in Beaverton, Oregon, with my husband, Richard Tourville, an Executive Senior Director at Nike, and our two children, ages 3 and 5. 

Lived Experience: 

My journey began in Kabul, Afghanistan, where I was raised in a family devoted to public service—my mother worked for the United Nations, and my father was a diplomat. Through their determination, my sisters and I escaped the war and built lives dedicated to serving others. Twenty‑six years ago, I moved to the United States with the dream of pursuing the law and serving my community. Today, I honor that dream every day by applying the law fairly and ensuring that every person before me has access to justice.