Family law practitioner, mental health attorney named Lane County’s newest judges

A family law practitioner and a mental health defense attorney were appointed to fill two newly created judicial positions in Lane County, Gov. Tina Kotek announced Friday, Jan. 2.

Both positions are up for election in November, Oregon Judicial Department spokesperson Sarah Evans said. State lawmakers voted in 2025 to add the positions for Lane County, the first increase in circuit court judges for the county since 1984, Evans said.

Circuit courts hear a wide variety of cases, including felony and misdemeanor criminal cases, protective order cases and civil cases, including contract and employment disputes, among many others.

Voters elect circuit court judges to six-year terms in non-partisan races. Lane County now has 17 circuit court judges, including the two new appointees. This year a total of seven Lane County circuit court judge positions will be on the ballot.

Jessica E. May, a family law specialist, is a partner with Arnold Law in Eugene where she has been for 11 years, according to a biography on the Arnold Law website.

The site describes May, a Eugene native, as a trial lawyer who has practiced criminal defense law as well as complex civil litigation. She’s active with nonprofit organizations, co-chairing the live auction for the Relief Nursery’s Main Event and serving as president-elect of the board of directors for Positive Community Kitchen.

May lives in Eugene and attended Creighton University, where she received her bachelor’s and law degrees. Attempts to reach May on Friday were unsuccessful.

Allison E. Knight is the lead mental health attorney at Public Defenders Services of Lane County.

Knight, 36, said she began working there in 2015 and then returned in 2020 after working about 18 months at a nonprofit in Massachusetts helping families access special education services for children with mental illness.

“My whole legal practice has been working with people who are experiencing poverty and needing the court in some way,” Knight said.

Judges “need to have a sense of what the realities are for the people appearing before them,” she said. 

A judge can sometimes be well-meaning in ordering treatment, for example, but such an order can prove “impossible” depending on how accessible the treatment is and also the personal circumstances of the person appearing in court, she said.

Knight has bachelor’s degrees from Colorado State University and a law degree from the University of Oregon. She expects to start in her new role Jan. 26.

Circuit judges earn salaries set by the state at $204,060 annually. State lawmakers voted this year to increase circuit judge salaries from about $150,000 annually.

Jay McAlpin, presiding judge for Lane County Circuit Court, wrote a letter to lawmakers in support of adding two new judicial positions.

“Nearly every judge on the Lane County bench has a ‘wish-list’ of programs that the court could implement to help reduce recidivism, keep families together safely, address our growing housing crisis and better serve the mentally ill who find themselves involved in the system,” McAlpin wrote. 

“But without your investment in the right sizing of the Lane County bench, we may not be able to sustain our current work and services provided much longer. At this point adding anything to the work that we currently do is impossible.”