Federal Public Defender, District of Oregon

Please join us in applauding the King County Department of Public Defense (Seattle, WA) in hiring two former FPD law clerks: Ella Dewars (Georgetown University Law Center) and Em Atkinson (Lewis & Clark Law School)! Ella clerked in the Medford office during the summer of 2024, and Em clerked in the Portland office during the summer of 2024 and continuing through the spring of 2025. Both Ella and Em spent their time at FPD working hard on behalf of our clients, and we know that they will both continue to do great work at DPD. Congrats to DPD for their fantastic new hires and congrats to Ella and Em for their upcoming positions at an exceptional public defender’s office! 

RAISE THE ROOF! Two times! We are outrageously proud to celebrate two of our AFPDs receiving recognition at the Nancy Bergeson Ardent Advocate event yesterday: Peyton Lee and Tony Bornstein. Peyton Lee received the Nancy Bergeson Young Ardent Advocate Award for her brash, bold, fearless, fierce, irreverent, and impassioned advocacy. She has been killing it since she first stepped foot into a courtroom, and we are grateful to be able to work her. She inspires us all with her everyday kindnesses and the unmatched empathy. Tony Bornstein received the Nancy Bergeson Champion Colleague Award for his decades of generously finding and sharing inspiration in public defense work, selfless contributions to the public defender community writ large, and lifting all of us up with his care, love, and support. Tony is retiring at the end of the month, we will miss him, and we are proud to celebrate his contributions to public defense. We are grateful to be able to work with these incredible colleagues, who set the bar—as Nancy Bergeson did—for the best and most righteous advocacy. Thank you for being in our lives and sharing your gifts with us. Thank you too to the Nancy Bergeson Ardent Advocate Lecture Committee, including Jessica Snyder, Thalia Sady, and Hon. Celia Howes, and Prof. Lara Bazelon, yesterday’s keynote lecturer, for contributing such an inspirational and heartfelt evening. #NancyBergesonArdentAdvocate #PublicDefense

Welcome 2024 FPD summer law clerks! Please join us in welcoming our 2024 cohort of summer law clerks (front row, left to right): Nico Salter Martin, Em Atkinson, Spencer Wollan, Cole Jensen, Rosa Wolf, Madhavi Subramaniam, Aazaad Burn, Colin Backhaus, Andy Essa (and back row, right to left), Alexandra Melishkevich, Zoe Fielden, Ella Dewars, Sophia Wooden, Ben Sammons, and Ike Nwankwo (Olivia Wenzlick not pictured). We are so excited to welcome you into the FPD Oregon family.

Our own Chief Paralegal, Kip Manley, joined the Honorable Judge Beckerman, and LRW Clinical Professor Rebekah Hanley for a great presentation at the Oregon District Court Conference last week. What a team!

Last week we said goodbye our much-loved colleague and friend Dawn Penn. Dawn has left us for the endless sunshine and bright lights of FPD District of Nevada, where she will be the newest star of the non-capital habeas team. Dawn leaves us with an impossible gap to fill: through steady hard work, deep compassion, and persistent faith in her clients she amassed a long and impressive string of wins (that is, win after win after win after win after win and, well, you get the idea…). We have not figured out exactly how we are going to manage without her. In the interim, we take some consolation in the fact that she is staying in the FPD family and in celebrating the excellent fortune of FPD District of Nevada for hiring her.  

Last week we said goodbye our much-loved colleague and friend Dawn Penn. Dawn has left us for the endless sunshine and bright lights of FPD District of Nevada, where she will be the newest star of the non-capital habeas team. Dawn leaves us with an impossible gap to fill: through steady hard work, deep compassion, and persistent faith in her clients she amassed a long and impressive string of wins (that is, win after win after win after win after win and, well, you get the idea…). We have not figured out exactly how we are going to manage without her. In the interim, we take some consolation in the fact that she is staying in the FPD family and in celebrating the excellent fortune of FPD District of Nevada for hiring her.  

Please join us in applauding Metropolitan Public Defender's hiring of two former FPD law clerks: the hard-working, client-centered, and amazingly talented Lauren Veronin (University of Oregon Law School) and John Herrmann (Lewis & Clark Law School). Lauren and John clerked at our office over the summer and fall of 2023. We are thrilled that they have landed at such an exceptional public defender's office, where they will get to learn from a group of brilliant, zealous, and supportive colleagues and advocates. Congratulations too to MPD for scoring these (truly) awesome new hires!!

Please join us in celebrating FPD intern Aleesha Kazi, who just recently accepted a two-year Federal Defender Diversity Fellowship with the Northern District of Ohio!! Aleesha clerked at our office fall 2023 to early spring 2024 and is a graduating 3L from University of Oregon of Law. Congratulations too to FPD Northern District of Ohio for landing such a highly competitive and stellar candidate!    

The United States District Court for the District of Oregon is accepting applications for a one-year term student internship as part of the Model Intern Program (MIP) offered through the Administrative Office of the United States Courts. This unique, year-long internship is being offered to junior and senior undergraduate students and is located in Portland, Oregon. The incumbent will engage in a wide range of tasks and will gain exposure to work performed in the District Court, Probation, Pretrial Services, and the Federal Public Defender (FPD). More information about this opportunity can be found here: https://lnkd.in/dJfrWsJJ #Intership2024 #PortlandJobs #OregonJobs #diversityandinclusion