2025 Warren M. Christopher International Lawyer of the Year Award Recipient Judge M. Margaret McKeown

Judge McKeown was appointed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 1998. She graduated from Georgetown University Law Center and holds an honorary doctorate from Georgetown University. Before her appointment, Judge McKeown was the first female partner at Perkins Coie in Seattle and was co-founder of the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. Judge McKeown served as a White House Fellow, where she worked as a Special Assistant to the Secretary of Interior and Special Assistant at the White House.  She was also a Japan Society Fellow.

Judge McKeown chairs the Ninth Circuit Workplace Environment Committee and is a member of the National Workplace Conduct Working Group and the Judicial Conference United States Committee on Judicial Conduct and Disability. She also chairs the Ninth Circuit Pacific Islands Committee. She served as president of the Federal Judges Association, chair of the Judicial Conference United States Codes of Conduct Committee (ethics), and chair of the ABA Commission on the 19th Amendment. She serves on the boards of the World Justice Project, the ABA Rule of Law Initiative (former Chair), and the Teton Science Schools, and is on the Council of the American Law Institute and the Judicial Advisory Board of the American Society of International Law.

Judge McKeown is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center and Instituto Impresa (IE) in Madrid and is Jurist-in-Residence at the University of San Diego School of Law.  She has lectured throughout the world on international law, human rights, intellectual property, litigation, ethics, judicial administration, and constitutional law and for more than 25 years has participated in numerous rule of law initiatives with judges and lawyers. Judge McKeown is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She received the American Inns of Court Lewis F. Powell, Jr. Ethics and Professionalism Award, the ABA Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement award, the ABA John Marshall Award, the Georgetown University John Carrol Award, the Federal Bar Association Community Service Award, the Lawyers Club Icon Award, and the Girl Scouts Cool Woman Award, among others. Judge McKeown is the author of Citizen Justice: The Environmental Legacy of William O. Douglas—Public Advocate and Conservation Champion (2022).