Justice O'Connor spoke at the dedication of Sandra Day O'Connor High School in the Deer Valley Unified School District in Phoenix, Arizona. Her legal career in Arizona spanned three decades: she practiced law in Maryvale, near Phoenix, from 1958 to 1960; served as an Arizona assistant attorney general from 1965 to 1969; and became a judge in 1975. She was sitting on the Arizona Court of Appeals in 1981, when President Ronald Reagan nominated her to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.