U.S. District Court Vacancy
With the announcement by Judge Garr King that he will take senior status in May 2008, Sens. Gordon Smith and Ron Wyden have announced the screening process they will use in recommending possible nominees to the president. As they have in the past, Smith and Wyden will appoint a committee of Oregon attorneys to review applications, to interview finalists, and to recommend three names, which the senators will then forward to the Department of Justice for consideration.

Those wishing to be considered as a judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon must send a letter of interest, a resume and any supporting material to: Federal Judiciary Screening Committee, c/o Office of Sen. Gordon Smith, 121 S.W. Salmon St., Suite 1250, Portland, OR 97204.

Applications must be received no later than 5 p.m., Friday, Dec. 14, 2007. Questions about the process can be directed to Kerry Tymchuk, state director for Sen. Gordon Smith, at (503) 326-3386.

Upcoming Affirmative Action Program Events
AAP Employment Retreat. Interested in meeting law students who will be looking for summer employment? The OSB Affirmative Action Program’s 9th Annual Employment Retreat is Saturday, Jan. 26, 2008, at Lewis & Clark Law School. A forum of potential employers wraps up the event. Registration is $75 per table. Space is limited.

BOWLIO. The 5th Annual BOWLIO will be held directly after the employment retreat, at Valley Lanes in Beaverton, Jan. 26, 6-9 p.m. Judges, lawyers and law students will team up to network and win prizes. The cost is $50 for nonstudents, $20 for students. Donations for prizes are welcome, tax-deductible donations over the registration fee are available. Proceeds go to fund Opportunity for Law in Oregon, (OLIO), a recruiting and retention strategy for Oregon’s ethnic minority law students. For further information about either event, please contact Donna Gigoux at dgigoux@osbar.org.

New Interactive Tool for Creating Pro Bono Policy
The Pro Bono Committee and the OSB’s on-site technology staff have created a new tool for firms statewide: an interactive web page that lets firms create their own pro bono policy. The tool can be found at www.osbar.org/probono/policy/. Users answer a series of questions, thereby inserting custom-tailored paragraphs into a model policy. They can then print and e-mail the policy for future use.

House Counsel Rule Change Pending
The Pro Bono Committee has also been working with Intel to suggest changes to the House Counsel Rule. The changes would allow in-house counsel licensed in other states to accept active pro bono matters, provided they’re working through a certified program. This rule change has been recommended by both the Board of Governors and the Board of Bar Examiners and is pending adoption by the Oregon Supreme Court.

Intel’s national pro bono coordinator Jeff Hyman said: "At a time of growing unmet need for pro bono services in this country, we should be doing all we can to enable qualified and motivated attorneys to serve low-income clients. Facilitating house counsel to represent pro bono clients in the state would clearly be to the public’s benefit."

OWLS Presents 2nd Annual Workplace Leader Award
At its fall conference on Nov. 2, Oregon Women Lawyers recognized the law firms of Farleigh Witt and Bodyfelt, Mount, Stroup & Chamberlain as joint recipients of the second annual OWLS Workplace Leader Award.

The award recognizes legal employers who are taking innovative measures to maximize opportunities for women and minorities to succeed in the workplace and advance to positions of influence and leadership.

Both law firms are characterized by a progressive culture that favors professional fulfillment over maximizing the bottom line: moderate billable hour expectations; openness to flexible hours and part-time work; and transparent management practices that give women a meaningful voice. Over time, both firms have managed to retain a proportionately high number of women who are raising children, and these women have become leaders in their respective firms.

For more information visit www.oregonwomenlawyers.com.

New Bar Center Nears Completion
The new Oregon State Bar center is almost finished. The exterior of the building is complete, and the interior is expected to be ready sometime in mid-January, with a move-in date soon after. The address of the new building is 16037 S.W. Upper Boones Ferry Road, Tigard, OR 97224. It’s in the Fanno Creek Place business complex.

Council on Court Procedures
Where do the Oregon Rules of Civil Procedure come from and how are they changed? If a particular rule is not effective or has been rendered obsolete by technology, or by practice, how may it be amended? The Council on Court Procedures was formed by the Legislature in 1977 to draft and to systematically update the ORCP.

By statute the council is composed of lawyers, judges and at least one public member. The lawyers are further subdivided into two equally-numbered groups: one from the ranks of the plaintiffs’ bar, and one drawn from the defense bar. The judges are drawn from the trial courts, the Court of Appeals and the Oregon Supreme Court. All members of the council are volunteers who serve without compensation.

The council meets once each month during the years between legislative sessions, on Saturdays, usually at 9:30 a.m. Meetings are open to the public and held at various locations around the state. The next meeting is Saturday, Dec. 8, 2007, at the OSB center. The following meeting will be Jan. 8, 2008 (location not yet determined).

The council is continually addressing whether the Oregon Rules of Civil Procedure are serving to fairly and efficiently resolve civil disputes for the benefit of parties and their attorneys. It welcomes reports of instances where a rule is not, or is no longer, meeting the "fair and efficient" standard. Questions? Contact Executive Director Mark Peterson at mpeterso@lclark.edu or (503) 768-6500.

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