Susan M. Leeson (born August 16, 1946) is an American attorney and former judge in the state of

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

. She was the 94th justice of the

Oregon Supreme Court The Oregon Supreme Court (OSC) is the highest state court in the U.S. state of Oregon. The only court that may reverse or modify a decision of the Oregon Supreme Court is the Supreme Court of the United States.Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

native served on the

Oregon Court of Appeals The Oregon Court of Appeals is the state intermediate Court of Appeals, appellate court in the US state of Oregon. Part of the Oregon Judicial Department, it has thirteen judges and is located in Salem, Oregon, Salem. Except for death penalty cas ...

from 1993 to 1998.

Early life

Susan Leeson was born on August 16, 1946, in

Salt Lake City, Utah Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

.1998 Oregon Voter’s Guide: Susan Leeson.
Oregon Secretary of State. Retrieved on January 20, 2008. The family moved to Oregon in 1961 where she attended Sunset High School near Beaverton. There she was a delegate to the Girls' Nation conference before graduating in 1964. In 1968, Leeson graduated from

Willamette University Willamette University is a private liberal arts college with locations in Salem and Portland, Oregon. Founded in 1842, it is the oldest college in the Western United States. Originally named the Oregon Institute, the school was an unaffiliated ...

in Salem, Oregon, with a bachelor of arts in political science.Blazing a Trail to the Supreme Court. ''Willamette Lawyer'', Spring 2007. She graduated magna cum laude and then earned a master's degree and PhD from Claremont Graduate University. Then at the age of 24 she returned to Willamette and began teaching political science. While teaching, she enrolled at Willamette's law school and earned her

Juris Doctor The Juris Doctor (J.D. or JD), also known as Doctor of Jurisprudence (J.D., JD, D.Jur., or DJur), is a graduate-entry professional degree in law and one of several Doctor of Law degrees. The J.D. is the standard degree obtained to practice law ...

in 1981. After law school she clerked for Judge

Alfred T. Goodwin Alfred Theodore Goodwin (June 29, 1923 – December 27, 2022) was an American jurist who was a United States federal judge, United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and also a district judge of th ...

and was a judicial fellow for

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

Chief Justice

Warren E. Burger Warren Earl Burger (September 17, 1907 – June 25, 1995) was an American attorney and jurist who served as the 15th chief justice of the United States from 1969 to 1986. Born in Saint Paul, Minnesota, Burger graduated from the St. Paul Colleg ...

's office. Leeson was on the Willamette faculty for a total of more than 20 years at both the school's College of Liberal Arts and the law school. She helped to start the law school's alternative dispute resolution program in 1984. She also married fellow professor Richard S. Hall, Jr.

Judicial career

In December 1992, Leeson was appointed to the Oregon Court of Appeals.Oregon Blue Book: Appeals Court Judges of Oregon.
Oregon Secretary of State. Retrieved on January 20, 2008. She then won election to a full term in 1994. On February 26, 1998, Governor

John Kitzhaber John Albert Kitzhaber (born March 5, 1947) is an American former politician who served as the 35th governor of Oregon from 1995 to 2003, and as the 37th governor of Oregon from 2011 until his resignation in 2015. A member of the Democratic Part ...

appointed Leeson to the Oregon Supreme Court to replace Edward N. Fadeley.Oregon Blue Book: Supreme Court Justices of Oregon.
Oregon Secretary of State. Retrieved on January 20, 2008. Leeson won election to a full six-year term later in 1998. She resigned in 2003 to battle

breast cancer Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or a r ...

Later life

After beating breast cancer, Leeson became a mediator and arbitrator. For several years, she has been listed in the "Best Lawyers in America" in the field of mediation and arbitration. Leeson received the Betty Roberts Award from Oregon Women Lawyers in 2003, and she was named Legal Citizen of the Year in 2006. She was an adjunct professor at the

University of Oregon School of Law The University of Oregon School of Law is a public law school in the U.S. state of Oregon. Housed in the Knight Law Center, it is Oregon's only state funded law school. The school, founded in 1884, is located on the University of Oregon campus in ...

for two years, teaching mediation skills, and was the lead principal writer for the 2009 edition of "We the People: The Citizen and the Constitution" for the Center for Civic Education. Leeson frequently presents at teacher workshops around the country focused on civics and American history. In 2009, Leeson became the staff mediator at the Oregon Federal District Court in Portland, Oregon. She received the Honorable James M. Burns Federal Practice Award that year. In 2012, she won the Robert F. Peckham Award for Excellence in ADR from the Ninth Circuit, and in 2013 the Sid Lezak Award of excellence from the ADR section of the Oregon State Bar.We The People Conference: Grand Forks, ND from Susan Leeson

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Leeson, Susan M. 1946 births Politicians from Salt Lake City Justices of the Oregon Supreme Court Living people Willamette University alumni Willamette University College of Law alumni American women judges Oregon Court of Appeals judges Politicians from Salem, Oregon Educators from Oregon American women educators Sunset High School (Beaverton, Oregon) alumni Claremont Graduate University alumni Lawyers from Salem, Oregon 21st-century American women 20th-century American women judges 20th-century American judges 21st-century American women judges 21st-century American judges