PALS to welcome Circuit Court judge

Registration is now open for the spring semester Patricia Adams Lecture series on Thursday, April 6. We are pleased to welcome the Honorable Susan P. Graber, judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which serves nine western states and two Pacific Island jurisdictions, as our keynote speaker. 

Judge Graber will give her keynote address, Women, Leadership and Law, as part of the dinner, which begins at 6:30 p.m. A reception and cash bar begins at 5:45 p.m. in Seiberling Gymnasium.

In 1998, Judge Graber was appointed to the Court of Appeals by President Bill Clinton. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Wellesley College and Yale Law School, she had previously worked in private practice in Santa Fe, N.M., Cincinnati and Portland, Ore. She was the chief judge of the Oregon Court of Appeals and also served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of Oregon before her current appointment.

An Oklahoma City native, Judge Graber has held a number of leadership positions in the legal profession, most recently serving on the Federal Bar Association Oregon Chapter Board and the U.S. Judicial Conference Committee on Rules of Practice and Procedure. In her community, she is a mentor for the Lezak Project and served on the Board of Visitors for the Northwestern School of Law at Lewis & Clark College. Her publication topics include jury behavior, state-federal court tensions, writing effective briefs and feminist legal theory.

During her time on campus, Judge Graber will meet in various settings with students and the campus community, including a one-on-one interview with graduating senior Gabrielle Poliseno at 11 a.m. Thursday and Advice I’d Give My College Self at 2 p.m. Thursday, both in Gundlach Theatre.

The cost to attend the dinner and Judge Graber’s keynote address is $15 for the chicken or vegetarian option and $25 for the filet mignon option. Reservations are needed by Friday, March 31, and can be made by visiting www.heidelberg.edu/patadams.

For your planning, here is a schedule of events for the day.