Biography
Judge James has served as a Marion County Circuit Court Judge since 2003. She presides over criminal and civil bench and jury trials and pretrial hearings. Her caseload includes complex commercial, construction defect, civil enforcement, constitutional challenges to Oregon laws, family law and probate, as well as criminal cases from misdemeanor to death penalty charges. Judge James practiced law for 21 years, as a law firm partner and as an attorney general and AIC at the Oregon Department of Justice. She has been an adjunct professor at Willamette University College of Law since 2014 where she teaches Intensive Trial Practice and Pretrial Civil Litigation, and speaks on Professionalism. Judge James has mentored law students for more than two decades, and in 2013 the law school honored her by creating an award in her name for mentoring excellence.