Jordan praised as fair, savvy

During his 10 years on the King County Superior Court bench, Judge Larry Jordan presided over some of the biggest criminal trials of the 1990s while earning high marks from his peers in the legal community.

Now, as a private arbitrator, he's scheduled to render what could be the final decision in the long-running dispute between Seattle's two daily newspapers.

The high-powered lawyers who represent The Seattle Times Co. and The Hearst Corp. handpicked Jordan. Several attorneys who tried cases before him when he was a judge say they weren't surprised.

"I'm sure they wanted somebody who was heady," said King County Senior Deputy Prosecutor Marilyn Brenneman. "He's a heady judge. And he'll be fair."

"It could get nasty," defense attorney Chris Jackson said of the arbitration. "You want someone who can be the adult in the room."

Both lawyers used similar adjectives to describe Jordan: smart, gracious, intellectually honest. Jordan declined to be interviewed, saying through a spokeswoman it would be a breach of ethics.

A graduate of the University of Oregon and the University of Washington School of Law, Jordan spent 16 years as a commissioner for the state Court of Appeals before then-Gov. Booth Gardner appointed him to the King County bench in 1991.

In 1993, he struck down a law that allowed the state to continue to confine sex offenders after they had served their sentences. That decision was later reversed by the state Supreme Court.

Four years later, Jordan was the first judge to order the tightly monitored release of a sex offender held under the controversial statute. Both decisions showed courage, said Jackson, who represented the offender in both cases.

In 1994, Jordan presided over the trial of three young men involved in the drive-by shooting death of a 16-year-old girl outside Ballard High School. He sentenced two to long prison terms.

In 1996, he ruled arsonist Martin Pang, who set a warehouse fire that resulted in the deaths of four Seattle firefighters, could stand trial for murder. That ruling was later reversed, and Pang ultimately pleaded guilty to four counts of first-degree manslaughter.

John Henry Browne, who represented Pang, said Jordan caved to political pressure in his ruling. But he said he tried other cases before Jordan and had no similar complaints.

"If you're looking for a smart judge and a hardworking judge, you got him," Browne said.

When the King County Bar Association asked its members to rate Superior Court judges in 1995 and 1999, Jordan topped both lists. But he left the bench in 2001 to join Judicial Dispute Resolution, a private mediation and arbitration firm that employs six other former Seattle-area jurists.

In one of his last decisions as a judge, Jordan dismissed a lawsuit to close down Mercer Island's venerable Roanoke Inn.

"Were I choosing a judge to appear before, it would be him," said Brenneman, who prosecuted Pang. "Being in his courtroom was always a pleasure."

Eric Pryne: 206-464-2231 or epryne@seattletimes.com