Thursday, July 18, 2013

First Post!

The Oregon Women Lawyers has a new chapter, and that is the Joan Seitz Law Society in Douglas County, Oregon.

Douglas County’s new Joan Seitz Law Society kicked off our first event on Friday, June 28th, 2013 with a luncheon that featured two speakers: Justice Virginia Linder of the Oregon Supreme Court, as well as Douglas County’s first female judge, and namesake of the chapter, the Honorable Joan Seitz.  The event was organized by Deputy District Attorney, and current Program Coordinator, Jodee Jackson. 

Justice Linder obtained her law degree from Willamette University in 1980.  She served as an Assistant Attorney General for the Oregon Department of Justice, and then was appointed as Assistant Solicitor General.  In 1986, at the age of 33, she was appointed as Oregon’s first ever female Solicitor General.  She became a judge in 1997 after being appointed to the Oregon Court of Appeals.  After a runoff election, she won the majority vote and took the bench in January of 2007 as Oregon’s first female elected Justice of the Oregon Supreme Court. 

The Hon. Joan Seitz also obtained her law degree from Willamette University, graduating in 1974.  She was the very first female judge ever to join the bench in Douglas County, having won a local election.  It was in law school that Joan Seitz decided she wanted to become a judge.  She crafted her career as a practicing lawyer to educate herself uniquely for the position.  She decided to purposefully change jobs every three years to give herself a base-knowledge in different types of law.  She served as county counsel, a public defender, a prosecutor and worked in private practice, all before winning election and joining the Douglas County Circuit Court bench in 1985.  As a judge, she implemented mediation and started the Domestic Violence court, among her many other great accomplishments.  Judge Seitz retired, and was appointed as a senior judge in 2010. 

The speakers discussed their journey to the bench.  Both women explained how their careers led them to becoming judges, and shared their different experiences in getting elected.  Justice Linder spoke about her state-wide campaign while Judge Seitz spoke of her local campaign, and interested comparisons were drawn between them.  Both women touched on what it was like to be a female running for election for a male-dominated position, and the various reactions, both positive and negative, they encountered from people along the way. 

Justice Linder shared her thoughts concerning how the increase of women in law has changed for the better how women in society are regarded by the law and how it brought women’s and family’s issues to the forefront.  Judge Seitz shared about her mission of treating everyone who came before her with respect and discussed with humor and sincerity how important that was to her especially in light of running in to the people she presided over (or their mothers) at the grocery store. 

The event was attended by female and male lawyers as well as several law students from a wide range of practice areas in Roseburg.  The Joan Seitz Law Society was honored to kick off our presence in the community with Justice Virginia Linder and the Honorable Joan Seitz.  We look forward to making our mark in Douglas County and beyond. 

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