Former Bend attorney, Deschutes County judge Roger DeHoog appointed to Oregon Supreme Court

Gov. Brown chooses current Oregon Court of Appeals member

SALEM, Ore. (KTVZ) — Gov. Kate Brown announced Wednesday that she will appoint former Bend attorney and Deschutes County judge and current Oregon Court of Appeals Judge Roger J. DeHoog to the Oregon Supreme Court, as well as Judge Ramón A. Pagán, Kristina Hellman, and Anna M. Joyce to the Oregon Court of Appeals.

DeHoog is a judge on the Court of Appeals, and will fill the Supreme Court vacancy created by the retirement of Justice Lynn R. Nakamoto. Pagán is a judge on the Washington County Circuit Court, and will fill the vacancy created by DeHoog’s elevation to the Supreme Court. Hellman is an attorney in the Federal Public Defender’s Office, and will fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Rex Armstrong. Joyce is currently a shareholder at the Markowitz Herbold law firm, and will fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Joel DeVore. All four appointments are effective immediately. 

"Each of these highly qualified individuals brings a skill set and perspective informed by years of legal experience,” Brown said. "I am grateful to this talented, diverse group of judges and lawyers, for stepping up to serve our state and administering justice on behalf of the people of Oregon.”

DeHoog served as a trial judge on the Deschutes County Circuit Court from 2012 to 2015, before his appointment to the Court of Appeals.

Prior to his judicial service, DeHoog practiced as a Deschutes County public defender from 1993 to 2000, and handled criminal defense and domestic relations cases while in private practice in Bend from 2000 to 2007.

In 2008, DeHoog joined the Oregon Department of Justice’s Special Litigation Unit, which handles major state litigation on a variety of matters, including litigation on environmental, constitutional, and consumer protection laws.

DeHoog received his bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College, and his J.D. from the University of Oregon Law School. DeHoog serves on the Judicial Conduct Committee, is the former chair of the State Bar Constitutional Law Section Executive Committee, and is on the Oregon Council on Court Procedures.

In addition, he serves on the board of NeighborImpact, a community action agency serving Central Oregon. He will be the second Asian Pacific American ever to serve on the Oregon Supreme Court, and is the only judge on either of Oregon’s appellate courts from outside the Willamette Valley.  

Pagán has served as a Washington County Circuit Court judge since 2016, and served as the chief judge of the court’s family law bench from 2018 to 2021. Before his appointment to the trial court, he was a criminal defense attorney in private practice from 2004 to 2016, including as an associate attorney at Janet Hoffman & Associates LLC.

While he was in law school, Pagán served as a law clerk for Sonia Sotomayor, who was then a judge of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and is currently an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court. After graduating from law school, he worked as a staff attorney at the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, and then at civil and criminal firms in New York prior to settling in Oregon.

Active in his community, Judge Pagán has taught trial advocacy at Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland and the Fordham University School of Law in New York, and serves on the Judicial Conduct Committee, the Oregon State Bar Professionalism Committee, and the Literary Arts board of directors. He is a graduate of Arizona State University and the Fordham University School of Law.

Hellman has been an assistant federal public defender for the Federal Public Defender’s Office in Portland, where she currently serves as a supervising attorney. Hellman represents clients in federal habeas corpus cases who are challenging their Oregon state convictions on federal constitutional grounds.

Prior to joining the Federal Public Defender’s Office in 2002, Hellman served as a law clerk for U.S. District Court Judge Edward C. Reed in the District of Nevada. In addition to her law practice, Hellman has taught as an adjunct professor at Lewis & Clark Law School, served as a board member of the Oregon Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, and has coached the Franklin High School Constitution Team. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan, and her J.D. from Georgetown Law School.

Joyce, a shareholder at the Markowitz Herbold law firm in Portland, is regarded as one of the state’s top appellate lawyers. She has argued hundreds of appeals before Oregon’s appellate courts and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and has briefed cases before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Before joining the Markowitz firm, Joyce practiced in the Appellate Division of the Oregon Department of Justice from 2003 to 2015, and served as Oregon’s Solicitor General. Her practice at Markowitz focuses on complex civil litigation motions and appeals, and she recently served as the managing shareholder.

Among her many community and bar activities, Joyce has taught appellate advocacy at Lewis & Clark Law School, is a mentor for the Oregon State Bar New Lawyer Mentoring Program, and serves on the board of directors for Outside In. Joyce began her legal career as a law clerk for Oregon Court of Appeals Judge Rives Kistler. She received both her bachelor’s degree and her J.D. from the University of Oregon.