EXPERIENCE
James Cleavenger has been a Lane County resident for 15 years. He is the City Administrator for the City of Oakridge and has been a licensed attorney since 2009. He has also worked in law enforcement since 2010, serving as a police officer with the Junction City, Coburg, and Oakridge police departments. Prior to moving to Oregon, Cleavenger worked in government in Chicago. He has been a motorcade driver for the Al Gore and Barack Obama Presidential campaigns.
Cleavenger was born in Richland, WA, where his grandfather worked as the Superintendent of Power on the Manhattan Project at Hanford. His mother, Patricia Cleavenger, is a retired middle school teacher and librarian. His father, Mike Cleavenger, is a retired police officer and DHS investigator.
Education
Cleavenger earned his J.D. from the University of Oregon School of Law and his LLM in International Human Rights Law from the University of Liverpool School of Law in England. He earned his BA in Political Science and International Studies (with a Russian emphasis) at DePaul University in Chicago. He has also studied at Harvard, Oxford (England), and the University of Sheffield (England).
Legal Experience
In addition to having two law degrees (JD and LLM) as explained above, James Cleavenger has been a licensed attorney since 2009, and currently has his own private practice in Eugene. He is licensed to practice law in Oregon (Oregon State Bar Association #175732) and Washington State (Washington State Bar Association #41398). Cleavenger worked as a Judicial Law Clerk for US District Judge McShane for 4 years in Federal Court in Eugene from 2013-2017, handling civil and criminal cases. He also clerked for Judge McShane in State Court in Portland for two summers, where he worked on 2 Murder trials. He has also taught law classes (including Trial Practice) as a paid and unpaid guest instructor at the University of Oregon School of Law, as well as taught criminal law classes at the Lane County Reserve Police Academy. As part of his duties as a police officer, Cleavenger has prosecuted misdemeanor and violation cases for over 10 years in the Municipal Court of Junction City, Coburg, and Oakridge. Cleavenger is also an active member of the Lane County Bar Association.
Law Enforcement Experience
Cleavenger has worked in law enforcement since 2010. He began his law enforcement career as a Reserve Police Officer with the Junction City Police Department, where he served for 4 years, before transferring to the Coburg Police Department in 2014, where he remained until joining the Oakridge Police Department as a full-time Police Officer in 2017. In 2022 he became a Reserve Police Officer with Oakridge after being appointed the City Administrator. Cleavenger is a DPSST Certified Field Training Officer, ORPAT Instructor, and is a 2019 graduate of the Oregon Association of Chiefs of Police Executive Leadership Institute.
As a police officer, Cleavenger has prosecuted misdemeanor and violation cases in the Municipal Courts of Junction City, Coburg, and Oakridge, since 2010. Cleavenger was recently awarded the Medal of Honor by the Oregon Peace Officers Association, their highest honor (see “Medal of Honor” Tab for more information).
In his spare time, Cleavenger is an avid and competitive skier. His skiing has been featured in Willamette Week, and in 2019 he made the Finals while competing against professional skiers at the famed “Dick’s Ditch Banked Slalom” race in Jackson Hole. He was also a Trip Initiator with the University of Oregon Outdoor Program, and was the Head Coach and Wicket Keeper for the University of Oregon Cricket Team from 2006-2019.
Cleavenger’s complete resume can be viewed below.
