Orrin Onken

I am a retiring or retired lawyer in Portland, Oregon. While practicing I was the only practicing lawyer hundred-and-fifty-year history of the state--to be disbarred from the practice of law, get reinstated and practice again. I got disbarred because I stole about a thousand dollars of client money and because I was an out-of-control alcoholic. I got reinstated because I quit drinking and gave up my evil ways. The State Bar didn't want me to be reinstated even if I had given up my evil ways, but after a decision by the Oregon Supreme Court in 2003, there was nothing the Bar could do about it. You can Google me and get the whole story in disgusting detail. That story is longer than it is interesting.

When disbarred I did blue-collar work. I loaded trucks and drove a forklift. When not disbarred I practiced law. Mostly I practiced Elder Lawyer in a suburb of Portland, Oregon. Elder law concerns itself with the legal issues that crop up when people get very old.

I also write books. I am not that good at it, but I enjoy it. The books I write are un-serious. They are comedies or murder mysteries. I write them for other alcoholics like me--people who found that drinking didn't work out for them. The books are also for the groupies: the counselors, parole officers, psychologists, lawyers, judges and bartenders who make a living off of alcoholics. I like all these folks and fill my books with them. Some people who don't know a thing about alcoholics say they like the books too, but they are probably lying.

I wrote Malady Manor in the nineties and revised it in 2009. It is a tragi-comedy about surviving in an alcohol treatment center. I wrote The Duke of Morrison Street in 2008. It is a mystery starring--guess what--an alcoholic probate lawyer who gets in a lot of trouble with the Bar. The narrator is not me though. I gave up all my evil ways.

My second mystery is The Holders of Helmut Street. I brings back Leopold Larson, star of The Duke of Morrison Street.