Judge Edward Leavy, a senior jurist on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, has been selected to receive what has been called the federal judiciary’s highest honor: the Edward J. Devitt Distinguished Service to Justice Award. For more:  http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2015/10/portland_us_appeals_judge_wins.html#incart_river_home

U.S. District Judge Michael McShane is now telling some behind-the-scenes stories about his landmark ruling last year that struck down Oregon’s ban on same-sex marriage. McShane talked about his decision Thursday evening when he appeared with several lawyers involved in the case at an event sponsored by the U.S. District Court of Oregon Historical Society at the federal courthouse in Portland. For more:  http://www.oregonlive.com/mapes/index.ssf/2015/06/gay_marriage_judge_michael_mcs_1.html#incart_2box

By Adair Law With Magna Carta turning 800 on June 15, 2015, it is worth remembering that an original Magna Carta just missed celebrating its 771st birthday in Portland, Oregon.  In July 1986, the Lincoln Cathedral’s copy of a 1215 Magna Carta (one of four remaining copies–one at Salisbury Cathedral and two at the British Library), came to Portland for the start of an extended visit in the United States. Aside from a trip to the New York World’s Fair in 1939, it was the only other time the document had left the Lincoln Cathedral (which was established in 1072 by William the Conqueror). And how did Magna Carta fetch…

As many as seven lawyers are expected to leave the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Oregon this year, a brain trust with more than 200 years of collective service to state and federal governments.  For more:  http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2015/06/exodus_of_brain_trust_hits_ore.html#incart_m-rpt-1

Read attorney Noreen Saltveit McGraw’s recollections about a 1923 train robbery in Southern Oregon, perpetrated by the three DeAutremont brothers, here.  Noreen (Kelly) Saltveit McGraw was born in Medford, Oregon and is a pioneering female attorney who continued her family’s multigenerational family practice of the law that included her father Edward C. Kelly and her brother Bernard.  Her recollection of the train robbery is contained in an oral history done in 2000 with attorney Diane Rynerson. OPB’s Oregon Experience describes the event as triggering one of the country’s largest manhunts and helping to establish modern criminal forensics.  You can watch “Murder on the Southern Pacific” produced by OPB here.  Ms.…