Judge Mahan is a longtime resident of Las Vegas, having lived here and practiced law continuously since 1973. Judge Mahan graduated from the University of Charleston, West Virginia, and following graduation he served in the United States Navy from 1966 to 1969.
Upon receiving his honorable discharge, Judge Mahan attended Vanderbilt University Law School where he was selected for Vanderbilt’s national moot court team. Following graduation in 1973, Judge Mahan was admitted to practice in Nevada, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the United States Tax Court, and the United States Supreme Court.
In 1982, Judge Mahan and Frank A. Ellis III formed Mahan & Ellis, Chartered, where they practiced law primarily in the areas of business and commercial litigation for seventeen years. Judge Mahan was named to “Who’s Who in America” and Who’s Who in the World,” as well as “Who’s Who in American Law.”
In February 1999, Governor Kenny Guinn appointed Judge Mahan to the Clark County Eighth Judicial District Court. In the biennial Review Journal poll of lawyers in Clark County, he was the highest rated district court judge in 2000 and 2002.
In 2001, Judge Mahan was nominated to the United States District Court and confirmed by unanimous vote of the United States Senate on January 25, 2002. He took the Oath of Office on February 1, 2002, and continued to serve until he assumed senior status on June 18, 2018.
From 2005 – 2012, he served as an adjunct professor in trial advocacy at the William H. Boyd School of Law and served on the Board of Advisors for the Vanderbilt Law School from 2014 to 2019.