LaMar, Kristena A.
Person
Dates
- Existence: circa 1948 -
Biographical Information
Kristena LaMar grew up in Lafayette, Indiana, and received her BA with Honors from Purdue in 1970. During her collegiate years, she was president of Alpha Lambda Delta, director of the Student Volunteer Corps, a member of the Gold Peppers and Mortar Board honor societies, and chosen as "Miss Purdue 1968." She received her J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School in 1973. After law school, she became a legal aid attorney in Portland, Oregon with VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America), a national service program fighting poverty. Following her VISTA service, she was an attorney in private practice, specializing in family, juvenile, probate, and tax law until 1981, when she served as co-counsel to the Oregon State Judiciary Committee. After the session ended, she became the juvenile court's referee, serving first part-time and then full time, until she successfully ran for a Circuit Court Judge seat in 1984. During her judicial career, she developed the court's settlement conference program, was chair of the Arbitration and Mediation Commissions, and served fifteen years as a faculty member of the National Judicial College. She published several books and articles, taught in many states and foreign countries, and received awards from the Oregon State Bar Alternative Dispute Resolution System, the Classroom Law Project and the Willamette University Center for Dispute Resolution. She retired in October, 2009, after twenty-five years on the bench, the longest serving woman in the Oregon court system.