Michael R. Levine

Michael Levine had been an established public defender for several years when he created his law firm in 2002. In 2010, he partnered with Matthew McHenry and the law firm became Levine & McHenry LLC. During the almost 20 years that the law firm has served residents in the Portland metro and surrounding Oregon areas, the mission has been the same: to protect the rights and freedoms of accused persons.

Mr. Levine completed his B.S. at Columbia University in 1966. He then completed his J.D. at the University of California at Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law. While pursuing his law degree, he worked for the California Law Review as an associate editor. Since completing his degree, he has been admitted to practice in Hawaii; Oregon; California; the U.S. District Court, District of Hawaii; the U.S. District Court of Oregon; three U.S. District Courts in California; the U.S. Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit; and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Mr. Levine served as an assistant public defender until 1982 in the city of Los Angeles. He then moved to Hawaii where he was appointed by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals as the first federal public defender in the District of Hawaii. Then, from 1990 to the start of his private practice, he served the District of Oregon as a public defender. He received the Outstanding Defender Award early on in his career for his impressive work as a public defender.

Over the past several decades, Mr. Levine has continued to contribute to the legal community. He helped prepare the next generation of attorneys by teaching legal writing and criminal law at UCLA and the University of Hawaii, respectively. He wrote a sentencing treatise, which continues to impact federal sentencing proceedings across the nation.