Justice Aruna Masih has been a member and leader in Oregon’s legal community for over 25 years. She and her husband, a public defender, came here in 1997, after law school, with an appreciation for Oregon’s natural beauty and a goal to use their legal education to serve the community.

Before her service on the Oregon Supreme Court, Justice Masih had the privilege to serve Oregonians all over the state in various areas of civil law, including civil rights, employment, labor, professional license, contracts, pension and employee benefits, elections, and constitutional law. She was a partner in the law firm of Bennett Hartman, LLP, and early in her career, served as an associate in the law firm of McKanna Bishop Joffe, LLP. Her work included appearances in state, federal, trial, and appellate courts and before the legislature and administrative agencies.

Justice Masih currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Oregon Women Lawyers Foundation and the South Asian Bar Association of Oregon, of which she is a founding member. She is also an Advisory Board Member of the Roseway Recovery Café and has been coaching the McDaniel High School Constitution Team since 2017.

She has previously served on the ACLU of Oregon’s Lawyers Committee, the Board of Directors of the Multnomah Bar Association, Oregon Minority Lawyers Association, and Oregon Women Lawyers, and as the Chair of both the Oregon State Bar Association’s Labor and Employment Section and Advisory Committee for Diversity and Inclusion. She was the inaugural recipient of the Multnomah Bar Association’s Diversity Award in 2017. The Oregon Minority Lawyers Association awarded her special recognition for her part in creating that organization’s bar exam scholarship program.

Public service was instilled in Justice Masih at an early age by her parents, a Punjabi Indian father and British mother, who served as medical missionaries in a rural hospital in Punjab, India. She was born in New York but grew up in India, returning to this country in high school. While in India, she and her brothers attended Woodstock School, an international school in the Himalayan mountains. She feels a deep connection to the mountains of the Pacific Northwest and is grateful to have found a home and an opportunity to serve the community here in Oregon.

On her appointment to the Oregon Supreme Court, Justice Masih noted that “Equal access to the courts is an issue of civil rights. To meet the challenges of our society that the pandemic has undeniably made apparent, we must renew our purpose and redouble our efforts to create a justice system that is recognized by those who interact with it and are impacted by it to be respectful, accessible, and just. Over the last twenty-five years, I’ve represented the interests of hundreds of Oregonians, and I look forward to bringing my unique perspective to the Oregon Supreme Court. I am committed to being a fair and thoughtful Justice and to continue being a steward of equal access under the law.”