April 29, 2009

2009 Distinguished Business Law Graduate: Trudy Allen ‘82

Trudy Allen ‘82 was honored as our 2009 Distinguished Business Law Graduate on April 29, 2009 at The Governor Hotel in downtown Portland.

The Distinguished Business Law Graduate Award is awarded annually to a graduate of the Law School who has demonstrated exemplary leadership, has made a positive mark on the legal or business profession and whose accomplishments have brought honor and distinction to the Law School. This year, the Law School is pleased to bestow this honor upon Trudy Allen, who graduated magna cum laude from Pennsylvania State University, and from Lewis & Clark Law School in 1982. 

About Trudy Allen

Prior to attending Lewis & Clark, she served in the U.S. Air Force for four years. Trudy has had a long and distinguished legal career in business law. Currently she is the general counsel and senior vice president at U.S. Bancorp Equipment Finance, Inc. She also has served there as senior corporate counsel and vice president. Before joining U.S. Bancorp in 1994, Trudy was corporate counsel at Bank of America and Vice President and Assistant General Counsel at Security Pacific Bank. She won the prestigious Oregon Women Lawyers’ (“OWLS”) 2008 Betty Roberts Award for her promotion of women in the law. Trudy is a current board member and the Historian of the OWLS Foundation, and a former board member and Historian of OWLS. Trudy is best known for her significant accomplishments in researching and preserving the history of women lawyers in Oregon. In addition to collecting stories, she has scanned archives and memorabilia of Oregon women lawyers, written countless articles, lectured, and spearheaded events honoring Oregon’s female circuit court and appellate judges. She chaired the committee that published a 1998 calendar commemorating the Queen’s Bench 50th anniversary, and the sales of the calendar raised funds for the law school’s scholarship that honors Manche Langley (class of ’27) who was the much-loved matriarch of Queen’s Bench (which is now the Portland chapter of OWLS). Most recently, her efforts culminated in the completion of the new History of Women Lawyers display at the Oregon State Bar center.