Susan M. Leeson

Susan M. Leeson (born August 16, 1946) is an American attorney and former judge in the state of Oregon. She was the 94th justice of the Oregon Supreme Court. Prior to her appointment to the supreme court, the Utah native served on the Oregon Court of Appeals from 1993 to 1998. Early life Susan Leeson was born on August 16, 1946, in Salt Lake City, Utah. The family moved to Oregon in 1961 where she attended Sunset High School near Beaverton. There she was a delegate to the Girls' Nation conference before graduating in 1964. In 1968, Leeson graduated from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, with a bachelor of arts in political science. She graduated magna cum laude and then earned a master's degree and PhD from Claremont Graduate University. Then at the age of 24 she returned to Willamette and began teaching political science. While teaching, she enrolled at Willamette's law school and earned her Juris Doctor in 1981. After law school she clerked for Judge Alfred T. Goodwin and was a judicial fellow for U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Warren E. Burger's office. Leeson was on the Willamette faculty for a total of more than 20 years at both the school's College of Liberal Arts and the law school. She helped to start the law school's alternative dispute resolution program in 1984. She also married fellow professor Richard S. Hall, Jr. Judicial career In December 1992, Leeson was appointed to the Oregon Court of Appeals. She then won election to a full term in 1994.