Lawrence T. Harris

Lawrence Harris then passed the bar and began practicing law in Eugene and Albany in Oregon.^[1] In 1901 Harris was elected as a Republican to represent Eugene in the Oregon House of Representatives.^[3] In 1903, he was reelected to the House where he was selected as Speaker of the House.^[4] Then in 1905 Harris was appointed as judge to Oregon’s 2nd Judicial District.^[1] On that court he then won re-election and continued to serve until 1914.^[1]

In the 1914 general election Harris was elected to the Oregon Supreme Court, replacing William Marion Ramsey on the court.^[5] He won re-election to a second six-year term in 1920, and then resigned from the bench on January 15, 1924.^[5]

Harris wrote several articles on the history of Oregon’s judicial department. In 1922 his History of the Oregon Code (1 Or. L. Rev.) was published in the Oregon Law Review while in 1938 his A History of the Judiciary of Oregon was published in the Oregon Supreme Court Record.^[6]

In 1904 Lawrence Harris was married to Jennie B. Beattie.^[1] In 1959 he was awarded the UO Distinguished Service Award for UO Faculty from his alma mater.^[2] After leaving the court, he returned to private practice in Eugene and served on the bar examiner's board for Oregon. Harris died in Eugene on January 21, 1960, after a long illness at the age of 86.^[7]