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Title
Oral history interview with Norman Sepenuk [Session 02, Recording 04]
Date(s)
- 1993-03-06 (Creation)
Extent
Audiocassette; 00:30:40
Name of creator
Biographical history
Norman Sepenuk was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, in 1933. He attended Rutgers College and transferred to Princeton University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in history in 1954. He then served in the U.S. Army until 1956. In 1959, he earned a law degree from Harvard Law School. He practiced law in Jersey City until 1961, when he relocated to Washington, D.C., to work for the Department of Justice Tax Division. In 1963, he and Barbara Hammond were married; they later had three children. In 1965, U.S. Attorney Sid Lezak requested Sepenuk's assistance in an Oregon tax evasion case, and soon after that, Lezak offered him a job. Sepenuk worked as an assistant U.S. attorney in Oregon from 1965 to 1972. He left the office briefly in 1968 to attend the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, where he earned a master's degree in public administration in 1969. In 1971 he was selected as one of two attorneys from Oregon to serve on the National Commission on Reform of Federal Criminal Laws (also known as the Brown Commission). In 1972, he entered private practice and worked as an independent defense attorney in Portland, Oregon, with a focus on white collar crime.
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Scope and content
Tape 3, Side 2. In the second interview session, conducted on March 6, 1993, Sepenuk discusses leaving his law practice to work for the Department of Justice Tax Division in Washington, D.C. He talks about the relationship between the Department of Justice and the U.S. Supreme Court, cases he worked on, lawyers he worked with, and judges he argued before. He also talks about his marriage to Barbara Hammond. He then talks about being called to Oregon in 1965 to assist on a case. He describes relocating to Oregon and working as an assistant U.S. attorney from 1965 to 1972, with a focus on white collar crime. He talks about his fellow assistant U.S. attorneys, cases he worked on, and judges he argued before. He particularly talks about his relationships with Judge Gus Solomon, Judge Robert Belloni, and U.S. Attorney Sid Lezak. He also talks about attending the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard from 1968 to 1969, and later returning to Washington, D.C., in 1971 as part of the Brown Commission. He then talks about leaving the U.S. attorney's office in 1972 and entering private practice in Portland, Oregon. He discusses focusing on white collar crime, describes his legal strategies, and compares the work of a prosecutor to that of a defense lawyer. He talks about cases he worked on and judges he argued before.
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Joint copyright is held by the Oregon Historical Society and the U.S. District Court of Oregon Historical Society. Use is allowed according to the following statement: In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/
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- English
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- Batchelor, Jeffrey M., 1946- (Contributor)