Federal Appeals Judge McKeown To Lecture At UW March 26

Federal Appeals Judge McKeown To Lecture At UW March 26

LARAMIE — Judge M. Margaret McKeown of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will deliver a public lecture at the University of Wyoming during a visit to the UW campus March 26-27.

She will speak at 4 p.m. Monday, March 26, at the Marian H. Rochelle Gateway Center. Her topic is “Do Trees Still Have Standing? The Environmental Legacy of Justice William O. Douglas and the Wyoming Muries.”

McKeown was appointed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals by President Clinton and confirmed by the U.S. Senate in 1998. Previously, she was the first woman partner in the Seattle and Washington, D.C., offices of the law firm Perkins Coie. She was a White House fellow from 1980 until 1981, serving as special assistant to the Secretary of the Interior and as special assistant at the White House.

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Named one of the “50 Most Influential Women Lawyers in the United States” by the National Law Journal, McKeown earned her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center. She was awarded an honorary doctorate by Georgetown University in 2005.

A native of Casper, she received her Bachelor of Arts degree from UW in 1972.

McKeown chairs the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative and the Georgetown Law Board of Visitors. She recently was appointed by the chief justice to the national Workplace Conduct Working Group, which addresses sexual harassment in the federal courts, and she chairs the 9th Circuit Workplace Conduct Committee.

She has served as chair of the Judicial Conference of the United States Code of Conduct Committee (the federal ethics committee) and as the president of the Federal Judges Association, among other affiliations. She also is an adjunct professor at University of San Diego Law School and Northwestern University School of Law.

McKeown has served on the national boards of Volunteers of America and the Girl Scouts, which gave her its “Cool Women” award. She also serves on the Murie Advisory Board for the Teton Science Center.

McKeown’s campus visit has been made possible through funding from the George A. Rentschler Lecture fund at UW’s American Heritage Center. The George A. Rentschler Lecturer is a nationally known expert in his or her field who comes to UW to conduct research and give a public presentation on a topic relevant to Wyoming and the West.

The American Heritage Center is UW’s repository of manuscripts, rare books and the university archives. Its collections focus on Wyoming and the Rocky Mountain West — including politics, settlement and Western trails — and a select handful of national topics. Those include environment and conservation, the mining and petroleum industries, air and rail transportation, popular entertainment — particularly radio, television, film and popular music — journalism and U.S. military history.