ORGANIZE A LAW DAY EVENT
For more than 25 years, Oregon’s legal community has celebrated National Law Day on May 1, and used Law Week to educate the community about the justice system, and the importance of law in protecting people’s rights.

The occasion of Law Day 2004 is a terrific opportunity for bar associations, courts and other legal groups to reach out to the community. Involve schools and colleges, law enforcement groups, the media, service organizations, the elderly, business groups – the possibilities are endless. The wider the outreach, the greater the impact will be. For Law Day 2004, we are urging Law Day planners all over the state of Oregon to hold an event or activity. The deadline to order give-aways from the Oregon State Bar is April 2.

For general information and assistance, contact Peggy Miller in the Member Services Department, (503) 431-6384 or (800) 452-8260, ext. 384.

Dare to innovate
The first annual global search for lawyers, law firms and other deliverers of legal services who have invented and successfully applied totally new business practices to the delivery of legal services has been launched. The 'InnovAction Award' is being sponsored by the College of Law Practice Management of Denver, in concert with Edge International.

In a recent U.S. survey of chief legal officers, when asked about the most innovative practice proposed or instituted by their outside counsel in the past year, only 23 percent of respondents were able to identify any innovation at all.

Yet, in an earlier U.K. study of the leading 100 companies’ perceptions of the legal profession, innovation was ranked amongst the most important factors in choosing a law firm.

'We’re interested in new ways of thinking about the provision of legal services wherever they may be,' said college vice president Merrilyn Astin Tarlton. 'While the philosophical underpinnings of the legal profession have traditionally driven law firm managers to rely on precedent in decision making, we know a good deal of exciting thinking is now at work to solve the business challenges of law practice with little or no concern for the restrictions of tradition. We want to focus thinking on these extraordinary achievements and, hopefully, inspire more.'

Further information about the awards, eligibility restrictions and nomination forms is available at www. innovactionaward.com.

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For the first time in several million years, dinosaurs are back in Portland – this time with a legal twist.

In a 'whodunit' setup, a new exhibit at OMSI, the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, presents a 'crime scene' where a Tyrannosaurus rex is the 'suspect' and a Triceratops is the 'victim.' Visitors are asked to weigh the evidence and decide whether the hapless Triceratops was alive or dead when T. rex selected him for a meal some millions of years ago. (In other words, was this infamous dinosaur really a predatory killer or an opportunistic scavenger?)

Dinosaur jurors of all ages are invited to investigate the mystery and render a verdict of guilty, innocent or hung jury.

The exhibit opened Jan. 31 and runs through May 9.

'T .rex on Trial' is an interactive exhibit that presents the ancient 'crime scene' through realistic dinosaur models, rare fossil specimens and a variety of hands-on activities. The exhibit challenges visitors to use scientific methods to analyze the crime scene and reach their own conclusions. Visitors can compare their verdicts with that of the 'judge,' Jack Horner, curator of paleontology at the Museum of the Rockies and world-renowned T. rex expert.

Visitors will also explore how paleontologists uncover the evidence, develop hypotheses and 'exhume the body' at paleontology research sites. At the end of the exhibit, the 'sleuths' weigh their evidence and cast their vote for T. rex’s guilt or innocence.

For more information, visit OMSI’s website, www.omsi.edu.