Ronald K. Silver recently retired from the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Oregon. He was an Assistant U.S. Attorney from 1982- 2015. He was Chief of the Civil Division in Oregon from 2008-2014 and spent his last year as Special Counsel for Community Engagement. He spent two years in Washington, D.C. as the Assistant Director of the Office of Legal Education, responsible for training all the civil attorneys within the Department of Justice. From 1982-1991 he practiced in the Los Angeles office. While there, he took part in the Voting Rights Act case, Garza v. County of Los Angeles that led to the election of the first Hispanic Supervisor in over 100 years in Los Angeles County. In Oregon he has handled several Fair Housing cases. The Oregon Trial Lawyers Association awarded Silver its 2002 Public Justice Award for his Fair Housing work.
He has actively taught about the history of the Civil Rights Movement within the Department of Justice, other federal agencies, Oregon and Washington Bar Associations and within Portland and Vancouver schools. Silver has led many middle and high school students to Alabama and Mississippi on Civil Rights history trips for the past 10 years.