Keynote Speakers
Judge Ann AikenAnn Aiken was nominated as a United States District Court Judge for the District of Oregon by President William Jefferson Clinton. She was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on February 5, 1998. Prior to her federal appointment, Judge Aiken was a District and Circuit Court Judge in Lane County, Oregon for ten years. Before then, Judge Aiken practiced law in Lane County. She also served as the Chief Clerk to the Oregon House of Representatives. Judge Aiken has presided over numerous complex civil and criminal jury trials in 18 years on the bench. She is a frequent participate and speaker at many continuing legal education programs and conferences.
Judge Aiken has far-reaching experience as a settlement judge and a longstanding commitment to alternative dispute resolution. At the state level, sometimes individually and other times in a team, she resolved several hundred cases, including wrongful death, personal injury, employment, business and complex torts, domestic relations, child custody and visitation and murder cases. At the federal level, individually and as a team member, she has resolved complex litigation, such as the breast implant cases filed in Oregon, securities and intellectual property disputes, mass tort actions, environmental and construction disputes, including the Capes development along the Oregon coast, in addition to numerous discrimination and employment cases. She currently serves as a member of the 9th Circuit Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee chaired by Senior Judge Dorothy Nelson.
Judge Aiken has served on numerous boards such as the University of Oregon Law School Dean's Advisory Board and committees in furtherance of her commitment to children, including The Relief Nursery, Child Advocacy Center of Lane County and the National Children's Alliance.
Ana Maria Merico Ana Maria Mericois a native of Buenos Aires, Argentina. She earned her B.A. with High Honors from the University of Cincinnati in 1992, graduating Phi Beta Kappa and first in her class, and her J.D., cum laude, from the University of Michigan Law School in 1995. Upon graduation, she clerked for the Honorable James L. Ryan, in the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. She practiced law in Cincinnati, Ohio, at Frost & Jacobs, LLP, specializing in commercial litigation and federal courts practice. She is an associate professor of law at the University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law. She teaches Civil Procedure, Federal Courts, Comparative Law, and Civil Rights. She has numerous publications, in English and Spanish. Professor Merico has been honored as Professor of the Year for Excellence in Teaching three times since she began teaching, once at the University of Michigan Law School while she was a visiting professor there. She has also received a university-wide award for leadership and service, and is a Juan Luis Tienda Distinguished Alumna award recipient.
She was a Senior Fulbright Scholar in 2004 and taught at the Universidad Carlos III in Madrid. She has taught in Argentina and Mexico, in addition to Spain. She serves as faculty advisor for the Hispanic National Bar Association (HNBA) and is the former Regional President for the National HNBA. She has also served a five-year term as a Lawyer Representative to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference of the United States.
Jefferson SmithExecutive Director, Oregon Bus Project
Jefferson Smith is the Founding Chair of the Bus Project and has become one of the Northwest's foremost spokespersons on voter mobilization and engaging new people in the political process. He's an Oregon native, graduate of the U of O, and magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School. He clerked for the Honorable Judge Goodwin of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals before turning down offers from across the country to return home to Portland to work as a lawyer and public advocate. A column headline from The Oregonian labeled Jefferson as having the "Vision, Youth To Help Us Find A New Path," he was named by Portland UpClose as one of the "Top 20 to Watch."
Oregon Bus Project website