Robin Crabtree, aLake Oswego native who has spent her career providing legal advice to the United States Navy and national security apparatus on matters like the evacuation of Afghanistan and preventing foreign interference in the 2020 election, was recently honored for her leadership.
The Navy named Crabtree a recipient of the Captain Joy Bright Hancock and Master Chief Anna Der-Vartanian Leadership Award, given to “honor the visionary leadership of Navy Service Members whose ideals and dedication foster an inclusive culture by furthering the integration of women in the Navy,” according to a Navy release.
Crabtree, whose maiden name is Donnelly, attended Lake Oswego schools and graduated from Lakeridge High School in 1995. After that, she received her undergraduate degree from William & Mary and her law degree from Georgetown University.
Crabtree was inspired to become a legal advisor within the Navy in an era when national security activities were at the forefront of the national conversation. She was actually hired by a law firm before she decided to pivot to military legal work at the last minute.
“I was in law school in D.C. during a time when there was a lot going on militarily with the global war on terror and a lot going on in what we call national security law; there was the Abu Ghraib scandal related to detention operations and war crimes trials in Guantanamo Bay,” she said. “I accepted a job at a law firm but decided at the last minute that practicing law in the military was a way for me to use these skills I have developed on something I thought was really important. At the last minute I applied to the Navy and fortunately was accepted and commissioned a couple months before law school graduation.”
Crabtree has spent her career within the Navy JAG Corps, which provides legal services “to enable naval and joint operations in support of U.S. national security,” according to its website.
There, she has worked with legal representatives from all over the world including Saudi Arabia and Japan regarding plans to assist the Pacific Northwest in the event of a major earthquake, while also providing legal guidance during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
“The hard stuff is not the legal stuff. But there are a lot of complex legal issues that go along with that type of mission (Afghanistan evacuation) that involves other countries, other United States government agencies and, probably most importantly, it involves civilians. There is a lot of law that governs what we can do with the military in that situation,” Crabtree said, adding: “I feel like I have gotten to work on some things where I think we were doing really important work and was lucky to have been in a position to have an impact.”
Crabtree was the chief of national security law at the Navy central command center in Tampa Bay, Florida before transitioning to the role of executive officer of the Region Legal Service Office Northwest in Bremerton, Washington. In that role, she said she leads about 100 people in the Pacific Northwest and Hawaii. Crabtree has worked with officers on how to navigate family life while serving in the Navy and holds sessions to help cultivate leadership skills.
“It’s having the intentional focus of helping people achieve their own goals and helping people develop into the next generation of senior officers,” Crabtree said. “It is unusual for lawyers to be thinking about these sorts of things because we are not usually the ones in charge. I think that is something the legal profession could use more of.”
Crabtree said she was surprised to receive the honor but appreciative.
“When I thought about it, I was appreciative that the types of things that I think my commanding officer said about me in nominating me are valued by the navy and navy leadership,” she said, adding that she appreciates the Navy’s value of helping women reach their potential.
Crabtree also credited her childhood in Lake Oswego and specifically leadership opportunities she had such as being a basketball, track and field and swimming coach for Special Olympics athletes.
“I absolutely loved it and there is nothing like the feeling of helping other people accomplish more than they think they can. I think Lake Oswego offers a lot of opportunities to do those types of things,” she said.
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