Lynn Nakamoto first Asian-American on Oregon Supreme Court

Oregon Court of Appeals Judge Lynn R. Nakamoto has been appointed to the Oregon Supreme Court by Gov. Kate Brown. Nakamoto is replacing Justice Virginia L. Linder, who has retired.

Nakamoto is the first Asian Pacific American to sit on the state's highest bench. Judge Roger J. DeHoog, a Deschutes County Circuit Court judge, will fill Nakamoto's vacancy at the court of appeals.

Nakamoto was appointed to the court of appeals in 2011 by Gov. Ted Kulongoski. Before that, she was a managing shareholder at Markowitz Herbold, a Portland law firm focusing on business litigation. She worked there for more than 20 years, and gained experience litigating appeals.

She was vice chair of the Oregon Board of Bar Examiners in 2001 and chair of the Oregon State Bar Affirmative Action Committee in 2006.

From 1985 to 1987, she worked at Bronx Legal Services in New York City. Nakamoto, who was raised in Orange County, California, said she didn't envision having a career in New York and returned to the West Coast to find work. She then represented poor clients in farm and rural issues as a staff attorney and acting director of Marion-Polk Legal Aid Service from 1987 to 1989.

At her office in the Judicial Building on Monday, surrounded by hundreds of bound legal books, Nakamoto said that being an appeals judge is an "excellent job," but that she wanted to "contribute further" and sought appointment to the Oregon Supreme Court when Linder retired.

Nakamoto, who is the first member of her family to graduate college, said she never imagined she'd become a state Supreme Court justice. The fact that she's also the first Asian American to sit on the Oregon Supreme Court is significant to her.

When she first began practicing law in Oregon more than 30 years ago, the bar was much less diverse, she said.

Although she said she has no juridical philosophy other than "get it right," Nakamoto said she feels diversity is important.

"The judiciary should reflect the citizenry," she said.

Nakamoto, who enjoys cooking and traveling in her spare time, said she also has work to finish at the court of appeals before she heads to the building next door in January to take her seat as a Supreme Court justice.

The Oregon Supreme Court is comprised of seven elected justices, and Nakamoto will run for election in 2016.

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