Careers
Oregon Firsts: Female U.S. Attorney, Attorney General
By Nigel Duara
The Associated Press
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Barring a dramatic upset in
the attorney general’s race in November, two women will
occupy the top two places in Oregon law enforcement by
early next year, an unprecedented feat for women in a state
with a good track record for putting women in leadership
positions.
Ellen Rosenblum handily won the Democratic primary
for state attorney general in May, and her competition in the
November general election will be a write-in Republican
candidate.
Her federal counterpart, U.S. Attorney Amanda Marshall,
has held her seat since October. But does it matter that two
women are in this position?
``Of course it matters,’’ said Marshall, 43. ``It would be
ungrateful of me to say it doesn’t matter. I think for girls
growing up right now in Oregon, they look at Ellen and I
and they think gee, what do I want to be when I grow up? I
want to be the U.S. attorney, and I don’t think it’s just girls
(that think that).’’
Marshall, the daughter of a mother who moved often in
her childhood, said frequent changes helped shape her as a
person and an attorney.
``It’s not just the fact I’m a woman,’’ she said. ``It’s also,
I didn’t come from a position of privilege.’’
She’s had a job since her first paper route at age 11, later
working as a waitress in a retirement home to earn money
in high school.
After graduating from the University of Oregon with a
degree in rhetoric and communication and earning a law
degree at Willamette University, Marshall began a career
that would span the gamut of Oregon’s criminal justice sys-
tem, beginning with tribal justice and including prosecuting
major crimes in Coos County, working as a litigator in the
Department of Justice and finishing as the department’s
lead child advocacy attorney.
It would serve her well before a 13-member selection
committee convened by U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden in 2009 to
select three nominees for Oregon’s U.S. attorney.
``The idea that your two chief law enforcers are going to
be women is really out of the box in some ways,’’ said Deb-
bie Walsh, Director of the Center for American Women and
Politics at Rutgers University. ``But if you were going to
tell me it happens in a state, Oregon would be one of the
states.’’
While Marshall thought her experience with state law
enforcement gave her an edge in the run for U.S. attorney,
she said Portland-area legal and political observers almost
immediately cast doubt on her candidacy’s viability.
``The media, the press was so different. I was criticized
for being too young and too inexperienced,’’ said Marshall,
noting she graduated law school a year before one of the
other people under consideration. ``I think being a woman,
you get a whole different set of criticisms.’’
Walsh said it’s not uncommon for women in leadership to
face uneven scrutiny, and managing the work-life balance
sometimes requires masking personal obligations in order
‘The idea that your two chief
law enforcers are going to be
women is really out of the box
in some ways. But if you were
going to tell me it happens in
a state, Oregon would be one
of the states’
— Debbie Walsh, Director of the Center
for American Women and Politics at
Rutgers University
to avoid seeming distracted by them.
``It’s the kind of the thing where it sounds like the man
should get the Nobel prize for going to his kids’ soccer
game,’’ Walsh said. ``For women, if you have a kid respon-
sibility, you tell people you’re going to the dentist.’’
After her name was forwarded by Wyden with two others
to President Barack Obama — who made the pick — Mar-
shall faced a nearly two-year wait for her Senate
confirmation.
Her focus now is on the high-profile cases started under
her watch or her predecessors’, along with priorities she’s
tried to set. Chief among them is child exploitation.
Observing a system she thinks is in dire need of financial
assistance and improved coordination at the state level,
Marshall said she wants to take the idea of criminalization
out of the process for victims of trafficking.
``Every time we find a child being trafficked on the street,
(Department of Human Services) child welfare comes in
and says, this child is at a risk for harm,” she says.
Marshall would rather have the child treated as a depend-
ent youth and kept out of the criminal system. But the
problem, she said, is the state has nowhere to put them.
``Once they do that, then I can go and indict the pimp
because I have a witness (but) that’s the problem, I don’t
have these girls around long enough to take it to trial,’’ Mar-
shall said. ``My concern is putting pimps in jail.’’
The combination of females as U.S. Attorney and attorney
general isn’t unprecedented nationally. California’s attorney
general is female, as are two of its four U.S. attorneys.
When former Kate Pflaumer was picked to be U.S. attor-
ney for Western Washington in the early 1990s, women
were picking up federal and state leadership positions. A
woman led the Washington State Police and the FBI in the
state, and Christine Gregoire was the attorney general.
Pflaumer herself was nominated by U.S. Sen. Patty Murray.
``At the monthly gatherings of FBI (Special Agents in
Charge), we used to joke that we were going to bring in
cloth napkins, make it a proper luncheon,’’ Plfaumer said.
Marshall said her time at the state level gave her needed
preparation for the job of managing some of the most com-
plex cases in Oregon’s federal system. When she took
office, she kept the same management team in place that
preceded her, went personally to each employee’s office
and spoke with them privately, including those in Eugene
and Medford.
It was, she said, the some of the best early training for the
job.
``That’s the best lesson for a lawyer, is learning who to
listen to,’’ she said, ``and they’re usually not people above
you, they’re people below you.’’
2012-00093
pROCUREmENT
SpECIALIST,
ASSISTANT
Salary: $19.08 to
$23.28 per hour
NOTE: This Recruitment
is limited to the first 85
qualified applicants or by
June 11, 2012, whichev-
er comes first.
LITIGATION ATTORNEy
The Portland City Attorney’s Office seeks an attorney
with at least 5 years of experience to provide a broad
range of litigation services for the City’s Bureau of Fire
and Police Disability and Retirement. This attorney will
provide general advice and will handle trials, administra-
tive contested case hearings, and administrative and civil
appeals. Experience with medical issues/experts desir-
able. Annual salary approximately $86,000 - $102,000,
depending on experience, plus excellent benefits. Sub-
mit resume and cover letter to Kim Sneath, Portland City
Attorney’s Office, 1221 SW Fourth Ave., Room 430, Port-
land,
OR
97204
or
email:
Kim.Sneath@portlandoregon.gov. Deadline: 5:00 pm,
June 15, 2012.
The City of Portland is an Equal Opportunity Employer
Minorities Encouraged to Apply
6-6-12
DIRECTOR OF SECURITy SERvICES
portland public Schools
Portland Public Schools is currently recruiting for the
position Director of Security Services.
To learn more about this opportunity and to apply for this
position
please
visit
our
website
at
http://www.pps.k12.or.us/departments/hr/3340.htm and
complete the online “Management" application. Should
you have any questions about the position please con-
tact Peter Wendel at peter@whitefoxgroup.com
A Procurement Assistant
provides clerical support
and assistance to the
more senior procure-
ment staff members
involved in the central-
ized
purchasing
processes.
Duties
include: data entry and
database updates; docu-
ment formatting, review
and distribution; adver-
tising
placement;
providing verbal and
written customer service
to contractors and ven-
dors; and preparation
and filing of documents
such as Council reports
and ordinances, bid
results and surety lists,
contracts, exhibits, let-
ters, forms, memos,
calendars and reports. In
addition, Procurement
Assistants are called
upon to represent the
City and provide infor-
mation at outreach
events or meetings.
NOTE: While this recruit-
ment is specific in
seeking a person quali-
fied specifically for the
Construction Services
Work Group, the result-
ing recruitment may also
be used to satisfy the
needs of other work
groups within Procure-
ment Services as like
positions become avail-
able.
6-6-12
www.theskanner.com
6-6-12
June 6, 2012 The Portland Skanner Page 11