Ron Waterman is photographed in his office accepting his lifetime achievement award, presented to him by Colin Stephens
2026 Timer Moses Lifetime Achievement Award - Ron Waterman
Presented by David Ness at the 2026 FDOM/MTACDL Conference on March 12, 2025. Ron was presented the award in absentia.
2026 Timer Moses Lifetime Achievement Award – Ron Waterman
The Montana Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers awarded the Timer Moses Lifetime Achievement Award to Ron Waterman. Ron may not be well known among members of MTACDL, but his contributions to the criminal justice system – as well as his work advancing civil rights of the marginalized and disenfranchised – are beyond measure.
Ron is retired but prior to his retirement he worked for 45 years as an associate and then partner for Gough, Shanahan, Johnson & Waterman. Although he had a busy and successful civil practice, Ron made time to work on important civil rights and criminal justice issues. In the 1990’s, he served as lead counsel in a number of civil rights lawsuits arising out of the 1991 prison riot. His guidance and contribution to that litigation led to a successful jury verdict for a number of inmates that were abused by prison employees. Following the success of that case, the State settled with the remainder of the plaintiffs.
During the prison riot litigation, the State executed one of Ron’s clients, Duncan McKenzie. As his execution date approached, Ron got involved with McKenzie’s criminal case in a last-ditch effort to save his life. Ron’s efforts were, unfortunately, unsuccessful. But he stayed with McKenzie to the very end, speaking with him throughout the day of his death and witnessing his execution.
Ron’s efforts on behalf of Ronald Smith, another inmate on death row, proved more successful. With the assistance of Greg Jackson and James Taylor, Ron took the lead in challenging the three-drug cocktail that Montana used to execute inmates. After destroying the credibility of the State’s expert, who was exposed as having provided false testimony in other cases, Ron obtained a permanent injunction enjoining Montana from using its existing lethal injection drug protocol. That injunction remains in effect, and no one has been executed in Montana since it was issued in 2015.
Ron also represented Jimmy Ray Bromgard, who was wrongfully convicted of raping an eight-year old girl in 1987. Bromgard served fifteen years in prison before genetic evidence exonerated him. After he was exonerated, Ron assisted Bromgard with a law suit against the State and Yellowstone County for damages. Following the Bromgard case, Ron joined the board of the newly-formed Montana Innocence Project, where he served as both member and chair for a number of years.
Ever an advocate for equal justice and civil rights, Ron worked with the ACLU as a cooperating attorney, first in conjunction with the Department of Justice in addressing policy and program failures at the Montana State Prison following the 1991 prison riot. Then, in the early 2000’s, Ron served as lead counsel for the ACLU in a lawsuit challenging the state public defender system. The lawsuit led to a wholesale revision of the public defender system. In response to this lawsuit, the 2005 Legislature created the state public defender system that is in place today. Ron also worked with the ACLU in addressing prejudice and injustice visited upon incarcerated Indigenous people.
As Ron once put it, “I have witnessed all aspects of how the prison system is inadequate and unfair and catches up both the guilty and innocent in the criminal justice system. I have tried to assure that the promise of justice means justice for all.”
