Montana Lawyer April/May 2024

transcript,” McGrath said. In his own remarks, or “rebuttal,” Johnstone joked that McGrath had stolen his punchline; he had planned to rib the chief for still not having read his resume. Johnstone received his Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago Law School in 1999 after earning his Bachelor of Arts from Yale University. His friend, the Honorable Neomi Rao of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, said “Tony” majored in “the most letters.” Rao, who also attended Yale and the University of Chicago Law School, said he studied ethics, politics, economics, geol ogy and geophysics, and she believes his broad learning brings him wisdom that’s helpful to judges, who must consider so many different experiences in their work. But Rao noted Johnstone is also a good sport with a sense of humor. When he was named “one of the 50 most beautiful” people by his college’s tabloid magazine, she said, he gamely posed in a kilt for the pictures. Bagpipers with the Celtic Dragon Pipe Band opened the ceremony, and Zach Rides at the Door, who is Blackfeet and with the Kyiyo Singers, sang an honor song. Dean Elaine Gagliardi of the Alexander III School of Law at UM shared quotes from students and colleagues about Johnstone, including a comment from Professor Jonathon Byington. “His mind is brilliant, his prose powerful, and his judgement sound,” Gagliardi said, quoting the professor. Nominated by U.S. President Joe Biden and supported by U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, Johnstone is the fourth professor or alum nus of Montana’s law school to sit on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Bullock, former attorney general who worked with Johnstone on a campaign finance fight that went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and back to Montana, said he has relied on Johnstone’s counsel. Bullock said Johnstone sought his advice too when Johnstone was hoping to make his way back to Montana and into public service after working at Cravath, Swaine and Moore in New York.

He said Johnstone once gave him a copy of the book “The War of the Copper Kings,” about the control Montana’s early copper barons held and “the corrupting influence of money.” At the ceremony, Bullock said it was time for it to sit on Johnstone’s bookshelf again, and he returned it. In his own remarks, Johnstone thanked his friends and fam ily, former and current colleagues, and the community. He said he will hold as his motto something U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy of Missoula said that stuck with him.

Keila Szpaller is deputy editor of the Daily Montanan and covers education. Before joining States Newsroom Montana, she served as city editor of the Missoulian, the largest news outlet in western Montana. Daily Montanan is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization. but he had a different idea, one Johnstone shared Friday. “The rule of law is really what we do together,” Johnstone said. At a federal courtroom dedication to Molloy roughly a de cade ago, the judge said people think of the rule of law as a rule, Johnstone putting on his robe (Photo provided by Tommy Mart ino and the University of Montana)

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