Results from April Election
Election results for various bar leadership positions and a membership vote on the U.S. military advertising in the Bulletin were announced April 16. Among the highlights:

Military employment advertising in the Bulletin: Over 2,000 members cast ballots in the membership vote. There were 1,248 yes votes to allow the military to advertise in the Bulletin, and 911 no votes. The matter now goes to the Board of Governors.

ABA House of Delegates: Marilyn J. Harbur will continue as an ABA Delegate. Paul Neese withdrew from the race after ballots were distributed.

OSB House of Delegates:

Region 1: Dennis C. Karnopp, Thomas C. Peachey and James R. Uerlings.

Region 2: Alan J. Leiman and E. Bradley Litchfield.

Region 4: Eric R. Miller. (Three vacant seats will be filled by the Board of Governors.)

Region 5: J. David Bennett, Frederic Cann, Charles F. Hinkle, Nathan C. Holtey, Hong Huynh, Paula Holm Jensen, Christopher H. Kent, Kenneth Lerner, Shawn M. Lindsay, Jeffrey M. Lowe, Susan Marmaduke, Katherine A. McDowell, Sharnel Korala Mesirow, Robert J. Neuberger, Kathryn A. Short, Thomas S. Smith, Heather J. Van Meter, Charles R. Williamson and Anthony H.B. Wilson

Region 6: Michelle L. H. Ing, Wendy J. Johnson, Robert Le Chevallier, Samuel E. Sears, Peter D. Shepherd and Douglas L. Tookey. (Two vacant seats will be filled by the Board of Governors.)

Out-of-State: Ann S. Christian, John F. Harwood, Janine Sarti, Credence E. Sol, Brian M. Thompson and John J. Tollefsen.

Complete results of these contests can be found on the bar’s website at www.osbar.org.

Award: First Carson Judicial Excellence Award Luncheon is May 31
In recognition of his exemplary contributions to Oregon’s judiciary, the Oregon State Bar has created the Wallace P. Carson Jr. Award for Judicial Excellence, which will be presented to its first recipient and namesake in a special award luncheon May 31 in Portland.

Created in Carson’s name, the award will recognize a state or federal court judge who has made significant contributions to the judicial system and who is a model of professionalism, integrity and judicial independence.

Throughout his career as a lawyer, judge and civic leader, the former chief justice personified the highest ideals of public service. This award will celebrate the best and brightest among Oregon’s judiciary, while recalling Carson’s example of all that can be achieved in a long and distinguished career.

All bar members are invited to join in honoring Justice Carson at the special inaugural awards ceremony, scheduled for Thursday, May 31, at noon, in the Heritage Ballroom of The Governor Hotel in Portland. Tickets are $30 per person. Reserved tables for 10 are available at $300.

More information and a registration form are available at www.osbar.org. Send the form and payment to: Oregon State Bar, Attn: Karla Houtary, P.O. Box 1689, Lake Oswego, OR 97035.

For questions or to reserve a table, contact Karla Houtary at (800) 452-8260, ext. 367, or (503) 620-0222, ext. 367;
e-mail: khoutary@osbar.org.

Recruitment: Board of Governors Seeking New Public Member
The Oregon State Bar is seeking a public, non-lawyer, member for the 2008 Board of Governors.

Board of Governors public members are appointed to four-year terms. Currently four public members serve on the 16-member board, Jon Hill, ESD superintendent; Bette Worcester, retired commission deputy director; Robert Vieira, vice provost of academic affairs; and Robert Lehner, Eugene police chief. Public members have the same voting rights and duties as the 12 lawyer members; however, they may not serve as officers of the bar.

The board is charged with the executive functions of the state bar. It has the authority to adopt new bylaws containing provisions for the regulation and management of the affairs of the state bar. Board members are assigned as contact to three to six OSB groups including committees, sections and boards.

The board has five regular meetings a year, on a Friday and the following Saturday morning. Nearly half of the meetings are held in the Portland area with the remainder held at locations around the state. Board committee meetings are held three to four weeks prior to board meetings. Special board meetings and other board committee meetings are scheduled as needed. With an estimated 25 hours per month spent in board meetings and at special events the time commitment for a board member is considerable. Reimbursement is provided for travel expenses for the Board of Governors public member position.

Those appointed to public positions on the board must meet criteria set forth in the Oregon Statutes: They shall be Oregon residents and shall not be active or inactive members of the Oregon State Bar. No person charged with official duties under the executive and legislative departments of state government, including but not limited to elected officers of state government, may serve on the board of governors. Any person in the executive or legislative department of state government who is otherwise qualified may serve.

To download an application and a description of other public member opportunities available at the Oregon State Bar, go to the OSB website at www.osbar.org, or contact Danielle Edwards, at (503) 620-0222, or toll-free in Oregon at 800-452-8260, ext. 426, or e-mail dedwards@osbar.org. Application forms are due June 22.

Event: Women’s History Display Opens at the Oregon State Bar Center
By Trudy Allen

In March 2004, Kim Kaminski (then president of Queen’s Bench, the Portland chapter of Oregon Women Lawyers) and Trudy Allen (chair of the Queen’s Bench Historical Perspectives Committee) met with Oregon State Bar Executive Director Karen Garst and other OSB staff to discuss Karen’s idea of dedicating one of the OSB center’s rooms to a historical display of pictures of women lawyers. They asked Queen’s Bench to help identify women to include in the display and to see if we could locate pictures.

The Queen’s Bench Historical Perspectives Committee started the process of picking themes and information to include. We solicited input from Oregon Women Lawyers and sought to ensure that we featured women from across the state. We decided, early on, that we wanted to include a timeline that identified firsts for women and women’s issues, comparing events in Oregon to some on the national level. Over a few months, committee members researched and developed the timeline. In the process, we found early appeals cases in which women appeared on the briefs, and we copied the cases into two binders to include in the Women’s History Room. And so we began to collect three-dimensional items, in addition to what would go on the walls.

By April 2005, Anna Zanolli, supervisor of the OSB Information Design & Technology Department, had been enlisted by Karen Garst to coordinate the project on behalf of the OSB. The OSB hired graphic designer Jeanne Galick to create the format for the wall display. The Queen’s Bench committee met with Jeanne and Anna at the OSB center several times, and, with Jeanne’s assistance, the concept of featuring some photos in frames blossomed into a much more extensive, museum-quality wall display. It evolved into a set of three 8-foot-wide panels with collages of photos and news clippings, riding over a timeline covering dates from the 1830s to the present. By the time we were able to complete several rounds of developing and proofreading the content, it was the fall of 2006, so we were able to bring the timeline up to date with the first woman elected (without first being appointed) to the Oregon Supreme Court and, on the national scene, the first election of a woman to be speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

On Feb. 22, 2007, the wall display was installed at the OSB Center. It is in a temporary location, pending the OSB’s move to its new building, which will include a women’s history room.

It has been very exciting to see three years of work and collaboration emerge in tangible form! The wall display comprises 46 photos (many showing groups of women), four news clippings, quotations and a set of graphs — plus 101 items in the timeline. It shows the inspiring story of many women who have pioneered the way for women practicing law in Oregon and shows that Oregon women have often been ahead of the trends in the efforts across the country to gain rights and expand opportunities for women. Of course, the women featured are but a sampling of all who have helped — and continue to help — blaze the paths for other women.

Among the women prominently featured on the wall display are: Manche Langley (a much-revered leader and matriarch among women from the 1920s until she died while still practicing law at age 79 in 1963); Dorothy McCullough Lee (member of the Oregon House of Representatives (1929-1932), member of the Oregon Senate (1932-1936 and 1939–1943), first woman mayor of Portland (1949 – 1952)); Hon. Jean Lewis (first woman circuit court judge in Oregon (1961-1978)); Hon. Mercedes Deiz (first Black woman appointed as judge in the Pacific Northwest (1970), first Black person to be elected to any office in Oregon (1972)); Hon. Betty Roberts (first woman on the Oregon Court of Appeals (1977), first woman on the Oregon Supreme Court (1982)); Christie Helmer (first woman on the Oregon State Bar Board of Governors (1981)); Katherine O’Neil (first president of Oregon Women Lawyers (1989)); Hon. Ellen Rosenblum (first woman representative to ABA House of Delegates from Oregon (1988), first officer of the American Bar Association from Oregon (Secretary, 2002-5)); and Hon. Virginia Linder (first woman appointed Oregon Solicitor General (1986), first woman elected (without first being appointed) to the Oregon Supreme Court (2006)).

Among the three-dimensional items that will be displayed at the OSB center is a statue of Lady Justice that was donated to Oregon Women Lawyers Foundation by Hon. Betty Roberts and is now on loan to the OSB from the OWLs Foundation. This statue was a gift to Betty Roberts in the early 1970s from her dear friend, Hon. Jena Schlegel, the first woman judge in Marion County. In memory of Judge Schlegel (who had died of cancer in 1977), Justice Roberts always proudly displayed the statue in her chambers when she served on the appellate courts. Another item is a scrapbook of news clippings featuring women lawyers. When the display is located in the women’s history room at the new OSB center, we plan to add a silk judicial robe donated by Hon. Kimberly Frankel, which belonged to Neva Elliott (a founding member of Queen’s Bench), who was a pro tem judge from 1967 until the late 1980s.

Oregon Women Lawyers Foundation is taking orders for 36-inch x 36-inch unframed color posters that show the three panels of the wall display. The price is $100, with a portion of the proceeds going to benefit the OWLs Foundation. If you’d like to place an order, contact Trudy Allen at (503) 797-0219 by May 31.

Trudy Allen is chair of the Queen’s Bench Historical Perspectives Committee and historian of Oregon Women Lawyers Foundation. She is general counsel for U.S. Bancorp Equipment Finance Inc., in Tigard.

— Oregon Women Lawyers

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