Michael J. McShane

Michael J. McShane (born 1961) is an American lawyer serving as the chief United States district judge of the United States District Court for the District of Oregon. He previously served as a state court judge on the Oregon Multnomah County Circuit Court from 2001 to 2013.

Early life, education and career

McShane was born in 1961 in Pittsburgh, in a conservative Catholic family. He grew up in Kennewick, Washington, where he attended high school.

McShane graduated from Gonzaga University in 1983 with a Bachelor of Arts degree magna cum laude. He then joined the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and spent two years in Portland, Oregon, as a corrections counselor. He left the Jesuit Volunteer Corps in 1985 to attend Lewis & Clark Law School, graduating in 1988 with a Juris Doctor cum laude.

He had worked for the Clark County District Attorney's office during law school but, on graduating, McShane joined the Office of the Metropolitan Public Defender in Portland, where he worked from 1988 to 1997.

Judicial service State judicial service

He served as a full-time Judge Pro Tempore on the Multnomah County Circuit Court from 1997 to 2001 and as a Judge on the same court from 2001 to 2013. He handled civil, criminal and family court cases. He received the Oregon State Bar President's Public Service Award in 2012. The Senate confirmed his nomination on May 20, 2013, by voice vote. He received his commission on May 30, 2013.

Same-sex marriage ruling

On May 19, 2014, McShane struck down Oregon's same-sex marriage ban in Geiger v. Kitzhaber. He ordered that the state immediately issue licenses to same-sex couples. The State of Oregon did not appeal (Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum declined to defend the state's ban on same-sex marriage); same-sex marriage in Oregon was legalized as a result.

Public defense crisis

On August 15, 2023, McShane ordered the Washington County sheriff to release all defendants from jail if they had been held for 10 days without a lawyer. This was amidst a long-standing crisis in the state's unique public defender system whereby the state and not the county paid for and contracted for public defense services via third party nonprofits creating a shortage of public defenders.

Personal life

McShane is openly gay, and he is the first openly gay federal judge in Oregon. His partner is Gregory Ford,

McShane sits on the boards of The Wayne Morse Center for Law and Politics at the University of Oregon and the Jesuit Volunteer Corps Northwest. He previously sat on the board of St. Andrew Nativity School, an inner city middle school in Portland for disadvantaged youth. He taught criminal practice and trial advocacy at Lewis & Clark Law School and is a frequent lecturer at law schools and bar associations in Oregon.