Occupation: Judge, Oregon Court of Appeals

Occupational Background: Oregon Solicitor General; Assistant Solicitor General; Attorney-in-Charge, Education Section, General Counsel Division; Assistant Attorney General, Appellate Division

Educational Background: Willamette University, JD, cum laude (1980); Southern Oregon State College, BA, summa cum laude (1975)

Prior Governmental Experience: Oregon Department of Justice, 1980-1997

Judge Virginia Linder

Qualifying experience: Virginia Linder began her legal career as an Assistant Attorney General in Oregon’s Department of Justice. In 1986, former Attorney General Dave Frohnmayer appointed her to be Oregon’s first woman Solicitor General. She was the state’s “chief appellate lawyer” and oversaw the work of more than 30 appellate attorneys in the Attorney General’s office. She also personally handled appeals in the Oregon Court of Appeals, in the Oregon Supreme Court, in the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and in the United States Supreme Court. She was Oregon’s longest serving Solicitor General. In 1997, she was appointed to the Oregon Court of Appeals, and then was elected to that position in 1998.

Other professional contributions: In addition to other professional activities, Judge Linder frequently authors legal education materials and speaks on such topics as appellate practice, constitutional law, administrative law, and criminal law. She is a former board member of the Oregon Women Lawyers and remains active in that organization. She also is an adjunct law professor at Willamette University.

Experienced. Hardworking. Professional.

“Virginia Linder is one of the smartest and most hard-working lawyers I have ever known. She is the only person I know whose brief on the merits was so persuasive that the United States Supreme Court reversed the case without even scheduling oral argument. Virginia has a wonderful judicial temperament. She is courteous and collegial, and decisive without being abrasive. She quickly emerged as a leader on a court beleaguered by one of the heaviest caseloads in the nation.”

Dave Frohnmayer
Former Attorney General
1981-1991

(This information furnished by Committee to Re-elect Judge Virginia Linder.)