New deputy attorney returns to Lincoln County

There’s a new county attorney in Lincoln County by the name of Marcia Boris.

Boris officially began working for Lincoln County on Sept. 6, and has since jumped into the fray of the litigation. She replaces former deputy attorney Donald Terry, who Lincoln County Attorney Bernard Cassidy said has moved on.

Boris is no stranger to the Lincoln County attorney’s office. She worked as a deputy county attorney here immediately after graduating from the University of Montana’s School of Law in 2008.

“I really loved the area and the people. I really enjoyed the professional relationships I had,” Boris said. “When I had the chance to come back I thought it was a good time to do that.”

After two years, Boris moved to Superior, where she’s spent the past five years as the Mineral County Attorney. Boris was elected to the position in 2010, and re-elected to the position in 2014.

“I was the prosecutor, provided legal advice to various departments, did civil work for the county; pretty much everything,” she said. “I was a one-woman operation down there.”

On Aug. 19, she submitted her letter of resignation to Mineral County after accepting the same job she left six years prior. Missoula attorney Matt Erekson has been appointed to fill the remainder of her term.

She said in Lincoln County, the workload is more manageable with the resources available.

“In terms of case load, I’m obviously not the only person that’s handling this stuff,” she said. “I’m not the only person that law enforcement can call if there’s an issue in the middle of the night. There, I was on call 24/7.”

Boris said her career has not been defined by a single case, but she’s learned something from a gamut of cases along the way, from misdemeanors to homicides, to become the prosecutor she is today.

“Every type of case teaches you something,” she said. “Every case is a little different and there’s always something to be learned.”

After stepping down from county attorney to deputy county attorney, Boris said she is interested in seeking the Lincoln County Attorney seat, but that the thought was too early to address publicly.

“There’s always that kind of possibility,” she said. “It’s something that I’d be looking at but that’s not something I would be discussing right now.”

Prior to her work at Lincoln County and School of Law in Missoula, Boris worked as a paralegal for a civil litigation firm in Missoula from 1996 until she finished law school. She said legal work has always been a passion in her career.

“Pretty much my whole life I’ve been in the legal profession in one way or another,” she said.

Lincoln County Attorney Bernard Cassidy said that the county attorney’s office is well served with the addition of Boris, who will be able to help mentor the other new blood in the office.

“It’s a great advantage to have her, someone with that kind of experience,” he said. “It will be another good change for (fellow deputy attorney) Jeff Zwang to learn and grow as a good prosecutor that he already is.”

Boris joins the office in the middle of the September trial period, with several trials already scheduled for this month that will likely bleed into the next. Cassidy said Boris will initially stick to prosecuting cases similar to those she’s prosecuted before, including driving under the influence charges, and will take on larger cases as they come to the county’s desk.

Reporter Seaborn Larson may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at slarson@dailyinterlake.com.