On October 17, 2013, Governor Kitzhaber announced the appointment of Joel S. DeVore, Erin C. Lagesen, and Douglas L. Tookey to fill three new positions on the Oregon Court of Appeals created by the passage of House Bill 4026 in 2012.

Mr. DeVore received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Politics from Antioch College and his Juris Doctorate from the University of Oregon. He began his legal career as a law clerk for Judge Tom Young on the Oregon Court of Appeals and has been in private practice since 1983, first in Pendleton at the law firm of Mautz Hallman, and now in Eugene at the law firm of Luvaas Cobb. Mr. DeVore practices civil litigation with an emphasis in appellate work. He also handles repair cases for the Professional Liability Fund and serves as legal counsel to the Eugene and Corvallis School Districts. He is a frequent writer and speaker on civil litigation issues and has served as a Lawyer Representative on the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference. Before law school, Mr. DeVore served as an Ombudsperson for the city of Anchorage, Alaska.

Ms. Lagesen received her Bachelor of Arts in English and Mathematics from Williams College, her Master of Science in Mathematics from the University of Oregon, and her Master of Education from Harvard University. She taught math at Milwaukie High School before receiving her law degree from Willamette University College of Law. After law school, Ms. Lagesen clerked for Judge Susan Graber on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and worked as a litigation associate at Stoel Rives. In 2004, she joined the Appellate Division of the Oregon Department of Justice, where she has handled hundreds of appeals of civil, criminal, and administrative cases in state and federal court. She recently worked on a team that handled a case in the United State Supreme Court. She also is an appellate lawyer representative to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference, member and past chair of the executive committee of the Oregon State Bar Constitutional Law section, and a coach of the Franklin High School constitutional law team, which is part of the “We the People” program of the Classroom Law Project. Ms. Lagesen was born and raised in Portland, and is a graduate of Wilson High School.

Mr. Tookey received his Bachelor of Arts degree in English from the University of Chicago, his Juris Doctorate from Cornell Law School, and his LL.M. from the National University of Singapore. After law school, he served as a law clerk for Judge Edward W. Nottingham on the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado and then for Judge Emilio M. Garza on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He worked as an environmental law attorney in private practice in Washington D.C. and then spent over a decade working on a variety of projects to improve access to justice and respect for the rule of law in developing countries, including Fulbright Scholarships in Singapore and Kazakhstan; serving as an observer to elections in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Ukraine; and serving as a United States Department of State Office of Citizen Exchanges and Dickinson College Fellow on managing environmental resources in the Middle East. In 2006, he joined the Office of Legislative Counsel for the Oregon Legislative Assembly where he serves as counsel to the 90 members of the Legislature and provides written legal opinions, writes laws, and reviews agency rules, with an emphasis on environmental law and natural resources. Mr. Tookey is an active mentor to law students and works with high school students through the Classroom Law Project and the Imprint Program.