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Mustafa Kasubhai to address Oregon Law graduates
He became the first Muslim American to serve as a federal judge in the United States.
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Malvika Choudhary - Wed, 01, Apr 2026
- 17:12 EDT
- 17
Mustafa Kasubhai / University of Oregon
The University of Oregon named Indian American district judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai as the keynote speaker for the School of Law’s 2026 commencement ceremony.
Kasubhai, a 1996 graduate of the law school and a United States district judge for the District of Oregon, will address Juris Doctor graduates at the ceremony, where the school is expected to confer more than 130 degrees.
Also Read: Gurbir Grewal to deliver William & Mary Law commencement address
Kasubhai was confirmed by the United States Senate as a US district judge for the District of Oregon in November 2024. Before that, he served as a federal magistrate judge from 2018 to 2024 and as a judge on the Lane County Circuit Court from 2007 to 2018.
He was the first South Asian American and Muslim judge appointed to the Lane County Circuit Court. Following his 2018 appointment as a federal magistrate judge, he became the first Muslim American to serve as a federal judge in the United States.
Before joining the bench, Kasubhai practiced law in Eugene and Klamath Falls, representing workers and unions in workers’ compensation matters and plaintiffs in civil cases involving torts and work-related injuries.
In 2003, then-Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski appointed him to the Oregon Workers’ Compensation Board, where he served until joining the state bench in 2007.
Kasubhai has also served on several initiatives and professional bodies, including the Oregon District Court Judicial Equity Committee, the Joint State & Federal Workgroup on Unconscious Bias Education, and the Oregon South Asian Bar Association.
He also chaired the Attorney Admission Fund for Oregon District Court, served on the Oregon State Bar Leadership Institute Advisory Board, co-founded the Oregon Muslim Bar Association, and co-founded the Oregon Mediation Diversity Project.
His work has been recognized with several honors, including Oregon Law’s Frohnmayer Award for Public Service in 2024, the Oregon State Bar’s Wallace P. Carson Jr. Judicial Excellence Award in 2022, and trailblazer awards from the National Asian/Pacific American Bar Association and the Oregon Asian/Pacific American Bar Association in 2018.
Born in Reseda, California, in 1970, Kasubhai grew up in Canoga Park in the San Fernando Valley. His parents were Gujarati Dawoodi Bohra immigrants from Mumbai who moved to the United States in the 1960s.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1992 and received his Juris Doctor from the University of Oregon School of Law in 1996.
The event is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. on May 16, at Matthew Knight Arena.
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