Judge Theodora Gaïtas was appointed to the Minnesota Court of Appeals in August 2020 by Governor Tim Walz. Previously, she served as a district court judge in Minnesota’s largest judicial district, Hennepin County (Minneapolis). As a district court judge, Judge Gaïtas handled a felony assignment and co-chaired her district’s Domestic Violence Steering Committee.

Before becoming a judge, Judge Gaïtas was a partner in a small firm where she represented plaintiffs in medical malpractice cases. For the majority of her career, however, she served as a public defender, initially working as a trial-level public defender, and then spending fifteen years as an attorney with the Minnesota Appellate Public Defender’s Office. Judge Gaïtas has been a member of the Minnesota Supreme Court’s Advisory Committees for the Rules of Evidence, the Rules of Civil Appellate Procedure, and the Rules of Criminal Procedure. She has taught appellate advocacy and criminal procedure at local law schools. Judge Gaïtas is a graduate of the University of Minnesota and the University of Minnesota Law School.