Oregon State Bar Bulletin — JUNE 2003
| In Memoriam |
Burl L. Green died March 20, 2003. He grew up in Portland, the son of one of the era’s foremost labor and personal injury attorneys, B.A. Green, who represented the longshoremen during the West Coast dock strike of 1929 and the Wobblies, as the union, Industrial Workers of the World, was known.
Burl Green attended Portland Public Schools, graduating from Grant High School and then Occidental College in Los Angeles. He was a philosophy major who considered an academic career before ultimately going to law school. He served as an officer in the U.S. Navy in the South Pacific during World War II. After the war he graduated from Stanford Law School in 1948. He began practicing law in Portland with his father, and they were soon joined by his cousin, James Griswold, with whom he practiced for almost 40 years. His other partners included Donald S. Richardson, Thomas Murphy, James Pippin and Robert Neuberger.
Green was described as 'the trial lawyer’s trial lawyer' who loved the law and felt that the civil justice system was the best and perhaps only way for the average person to stand equal to large companies and corporations. For Green, practicing law was about doing the right thing; he felt he could help make an injured person’s life whole again, and at the same time hold the wrongdoer accountable. His stellar career included many highlights and 'firsts,' such as the largest verdict in Oregon in the 1960s and the first million dollar verdict in Oregon at a time when there were fewer than 75 attorneys in the U.S. to have done so. His case, Koch v. Southern Pacific Transportation, abolished the rule which had immunized railroads from liability for failing to install flashing lights and gates at crossings unless plaintiffs could establish that a crossing was 'extra-hazardous.' He not only handled large cases with big verdicts; he handled cases for average people involving modest injuries as well, because they were important to the injured person.
A tireless mentor and teacher in his office and throughout the greater bar, Green served as president of the Multnomah Bar Association and as a member of the OSB Board of Governors. He was Oregon’s first member in the Inner Circle of Advocates, a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, president of the Oregon Trial Lawyers Association and a member of the Association of Trial Lawyers of American, the International Society of Barristers and the International Academy of Trial Lawyers. He served on numerous bar committees, including the blue ribbon commission that drafted the Oregon Evidence Code.
Green’s wife, Priscilla, predeceased him. His three sons and two grandchildren survive him.
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Richard (Dick) T. Howsley, partner at Lane Powell Spears Lubersky, died of a stroke on March 27, 2003, in Vancouver, Wash. Born in Medford in 1948, he obtained his B.A. from Willamette University, his master’s degree in urban affairs from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and his law degree from Northwestern School of Law at Lewis & Clark College in 1984. He was admitted to practice law in Oregon and Washington. In Clark County, Washington, he was well known for his expertise in land use, real estate, environmental, and natural resources law.
Prior to joining the firm in 2002, Howsley was partner and president of his own firm, which he founded in 1992. From 1985-92, he was a partner and past president of southwest Washington’s largest law firm, Landerholm, Memovich, Lansverk & Whitesides. Earlier he had served as executive director of Clark County’s Regional Planning Council and was director of Clark County’s regional government before that, from 1978-84. He also served as executive director of Oregon’s Rogue Valley Council of Governments in 1974, serving Jackson and Josephine counties. Howsley had been involved in planning for communities in eight states during his career.
Survivors include a daughter, Kelly, a son, James, and two brothers.
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Kip (Benjamin) Lombard died March 27, 2003, of brain cancer at the age of 62. Lombard was born in Seattle and grew up in Ashland. He graduated from Ashland High School in 1958 before becoming a member of the University of Oregon’s first Honors College. He graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 1965 and began practicing law in Portland in 1967 with Mautz, Souther, Spaulding, Kinsey, Williamson & Schwabe (now Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt). He returned to Ashland in 1972 to raise his family and practice law.
He served as a state representative for parts of Klamath County (until 1981) and Jackson County from 1977-85. The Republican legislator was known for his ability to work with lawmakers in both parties. Family friend state Sen. Len Hannon of Ashland recalled, 'He would compromise on any issue but his principles.' OSB Public Affairs Director Bob Oleson remembered that the former lawyer legislator 'was a great person and a great politician who continued to be helpful to the OSB (and serve on various bar groups) after going back into private practice in Ashland.'
In 1985 Lombard left the legislature to spend more time with family and to concentrate on water law and estate planning. He practiced with the Ashland firm of Lombard, Knudsen & Holtey and became one of Oregon’s premier water rights lawyers. He was a former lobbyist for the Oregon Water Resources Congress. He was a frequent writer and speaker at conferences on water law; at the time of his death, he was vice chair of the ABA Water Committee and was co-chair of planning the 2003 annual Water Law Conference in San Diego, Calif.
Lombard is survived by his wife of almost 33 years, Bernadette, their three sons and one grandson.