| Oregon State Bar Bulletin — APRIL 2012 |
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Randy L. Arthur of Dunn Carney has been elected president of the board of the Oregon chapter of Community Associations Institute, a 31,000-member national nonprofit organization helping community associations (condominiums, cluster housing, planned unit developments and common interest communities). The Oregon chapter serves approximately 7,000 homeowners’ associations in Oregon.
Edward J. Reeves, partner at Stoel Rives, was recently honored by Central City Concern of Portland for providing extensive pro bono legal counsel to the nonprofit agency since the mid-1980s. Reeves was recognized at the organization’s annual Working Our Way Home luncheon. His work continues the firm’s connection to Central City Concern, which began in the late 1970s when former partners Hardy J. Myers and George K. Meier were instrumental in the creation of the agency. The organization works to end homelessness through a variety of programs including housing, health and substance abuse assistance, and volunteer and employment opportunities.
Thomas R. Wood of Stoel Rives has been awarded the Environmental Leadership Award by the Northwest Environmental Conference, a training and information program that helps regulated facilities design and implement environmental management programs. The award honors individuals who have made significant contributions to environmental issues in the Pacific Northwest. Wood has counseled some of the leading industries in the United States on environmental permitting issues. His permitting and compliance projects have included work in the power generation, biofuels, primary metals, semiconductor, motor vehicle manufacturing, wood products, chemicals, and oil and gas industries.
Michael Phillips, partner at Davis Wright Tremaine, has been named pro bono legal counsel for the Conservation Alliance, a group of outdoor industry companies that funds and partners with organizations to protect wild places for their habitat and recreation values. Phillips focuses his practice on securities, mergers and acquisitions, general corporate and business law for outdoor recreation, life sciences and high tech clients. He provides similar pro bono legal services to Oregon Bioscience Association.
Lane Powell Shareholder Benjamin G. Lenhart was recently named board chair of The Children’s Course/The First Tee of Greater Portland, where he has served on the board of directors since 2009. Lenhart focuses his law practice in mergers and acquisitions (representing both acquirers and targets), commercial finance (representing both lenders and borrowers) and corporate finance and securities transactions.
Mark Whitlow, partner in the environment, energy & resources practice at the Portland office of Perkins Coie, has been appointed by Gov. John Kitzhaber to Oregon’s newly formed Access Management Oversight Task Force. Created by Senate Bill 264 in the 2011 legislative session, the task force is to oversee the Oregon Department of Transportation’s efforts to create a better balance between highway access management and the economic development needs of properties abutting state highways.
Tonkon Torp partner Mark Cushing has been elected to a three-year term on the board of governors of the Pacific Northwest College of Art. Cushing chairs the firm’s government relations and public policy practice and also is founder of the animal policy group, a unique advocacy practice offering strategic counsel and local, state and federal government relations services on matters ranging from pet and production animal issues to international accreditation of veterinary colleges. Formerly a business trial lawyer, Cushing has been a political strategist for many of Oregon’s high-profile elected officials. His bipartisan practice focuses on a wide range of issues and he works closely with Oregon’s congressional delegation.
Tonkon Torp attorney Duncan B. Delano has been elected to the board of directors of the Oregon Association of Environmental Professionals. A member of the firm’s environmental and natural resources practice group, Delano earned his J.D. in 2010 from Lewis & Clark Law School, where he was symposium editor of the Environmental Law Review and a research assistant on the International Environmental Law Project. His background also includes experience as a research assistant for the Natural Resources Defense
Tonkon Torp litigator Edwin (Ned) Perry has been elected to a three-year term on the board of Portland YouthBuilders. He has provided pro bono counsel to the organization for more than a decade. Perry is a commercial litigator and former chair of Tonkon Torp’s litigation department. His litigation, mediation and arbitration practice focuses on complex contract, construction and real estate disputes.
Shawn M. Lindsay, counsel to the firm at Lane Powell, was recently named a “Forty Under 40” honoree by Portland Business Journal. The award honors executives under 40 years of age who have character, achievement and involvement as a consistent theme in their career. Lindsay is a member of Lane Powell’s business and intellectual property and technology practice groups. He is also a member of the Oregon House of Representatives, where he is involved in the Higher Education, Transportation and Economic Development Committees.
Stephen F. Cook, a shareholder in the Portland office of Bullivant Houser Bailey, has been elected president of Columbia Land Trust’s board of directors, effective April 1. Cook has worked closely with the organization for the past 11 years. In addition to Cook’s work on the board, he has provided significant advice and legal work to the trust. Most recently, he and his team handled all of the legal work for the trust’s purchase of the Columbia Stock Ranch, the largest acquisition to date by the Trust in Oregon. Read more at www.bullivant.com/Columbia-Land-Trust-Land-Purchase.
Tonkon Torp litigator Jon Stride has been selected by the Portland Daily Journal of Commerce as a finalist for its Leadership in Law award. Stride is one of 19 finalists who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in law, involvement in the profession, support of the community and commitment to mentoring. Stride is a member of the Tonkon Torp litigation department. In his practice of more than two decades, he has represented businesses and individuals in all types of commercial disputes in state and federal courts as well as mediations and arbitrations.
Randy L. Arthur of Dunn Carney has been elected president of the board of the Oregon chapter of Community Associations Institute, a 31,000-member national nonprofit organization helping community associations (condominiums, cluster housing, planned unit developments and common interest communities). The Oregon chapter serves approximately 7,000 homeowners’ associations in Oregon.
Edward J. Reeves, partner at Stoel Rives, was recently honored by Central City Concern of Portland for providing extensive pro bono legal counsel to the nonprofit agency since the mid-1980s. Reeves was recognized at the organization’s annual Working Our Way Home luncheon. His work continues the firm’s connection to Central City Concern, which began in the late 1970s when former partners Hardy J. Myers and George K. Meier were instrumental in the creation of the agency. The organization works to end homelessness through a variety of programs including housing, health and substance abuse assistance, and volunteer and employment opportunities.
Thomas R. Wood of Stoel Rives has been awarded the Environmental Leadership Award by the Northwest Environmental Conference, a training and information program that helps regulated facilities design and implement environmental management programs. The award honors individuals who have made significant contributions to environmental issues in the Pacific Northwest. Wood has counseled some of the leading industries in the United States on environmental permitting issues. His permitting and compliance projects have included work in the power generation, biofuels, primary metals, semiconductor, motor vehicle manufacturing, wood products, chemicals, and oil and gas industries.
Michael Phillips, partner at Davis Wright Tremaine, has been named pro bono legal counsel for the Conservation Alliance, a group of outdoor industry companies that funds and partners with organizations to protect wild places for their habitat and recreation values. Phillips focuses his practice on securities, mergers and acquisitions, general corporate and business law for outdoor recreation, life sciences and high tech clients. He provides similar pro bono legal services to Oregon Bioscience Association.
Lane Powell Shareholder Benjamin G. Lenhart was recently named board chair of The Children’s Course/The First Tee of Greater Portland, where he has served on the board of directors since 2009. Lenhart focuses his law practice in mergers and acquisitions (representing both acquirers and targets), commercial finance (representing both lenders and borrowers) and corporate finance and securities transactions.
Mark Whitlow, partner in the environment, energy & resources practice at the Portland office of Perkins Coie, has been appointed by Gov. John Kitzhaber to Oregon’s newly formed Access Management Oversight Task Force. Created by Senate Bill 264 in the 2011 legislative session, the task force is to oversee the Oregon Department of Transportation’s efforts to create a better balance between highway access management and the economic development needs of properties abutting state highways.
Tonkon Torp partner Mark Cushing has been elected to a three-year term on the board of governors of the Pacific Northwest College of Art. Cushing chairs the firm’s government relations and public policy practice and also is founder of the animal policy group, a unique advocacy practice offering strategic counsel and local, state and federal government relations services on matters ranging from pet and production animal issues to international accreditation of veterinary colleges. Formerly a business trial lawyer, Cushing has been a political strategist for many of Oregon’s high-profile elected officials. His bipartisan practice focuses on a wide range of issues and he works closely with Oregon’s congressional delegation.
Tonkon Torp attorney Duncan B. Delano has been elected to the board of directors of the Oregon Association of Environmental Professionals. A member of the firm’s environmental and natural resources practice group, Delano earned his J.D. in 2010 from Lewis & Clark Law School, where he was symposium editor of the Environmental Law Review and a research assistant on the International Environmental Law Project. His background also includes experience as a research assistant for the Natural Resources Defense
Tonkon Torp litigator Edwin (Ned) Perry has been elected to a three-year term on the board of Portland YouthBuilders. He has provided pro bono counsel to the organization for more than a decade. Perry is a commercial litigator and former chair of Tonkon Torp’s litigation department. His litigation, mediation and arbitration practice focuses on complex contract, construction and real estate disputes.
Shawn M. Lindsay, counsel to the firm at Lane Powell, was recently named a “Forty Under 40” honoree by Portland Business Journal. The award honors executives under 40 years of age who have character, achievement and involvement as a consistent theme in their career. Lindsay is a member of Lane Powell’s business and intellectual property and technology practice groups. He is also a member of the Oregon House of Representatives, where he is involved in the Higher Education, Transportation and Economic Development Committees.
Stephen F. Cook, a shareholder in the Portland office of Bullivant Houser Bailey, has been elected president of Columbia Land Trust’s board of directors, effective April 1. Cook has worked closely with the organization for the past 11 years. In addition to Cook’s work on the board, he has provided significant advice and legal work to the trust. Most recently, he and his team handled all of the legal work for the trust’s purchase of the Columbia Stock Ranch, the largest acquisition to date by the Trust in Oregon. Read more at www.bullivant.com/Columbia-Land-Trust-Land-Purchase.
Tonkon Torp litigator Jon Stride has been selected by the Portland Daily Journal of Commerce as a finalist for its Leadership in Law award. Stride is one of 19 finalists who have demonstrated outstanding achievement in law, involvement in the profession, support of the community and commitment to mentoring. Stride is a member of the Tonkon Torp litigation department. In his practice of more than two decades, he has represented businesses and individuals in all types of commercial disputes in state and federal courts as well as mediations and arbitrations.
Longtime Oregon City lawyer, active civic figure and bar leader George Hibbard died Dec. 19, 2011, in Tualatin from complications of age. He was 99.
George Lovictor Hibbard was born in Portland June 4, 1912. A descendant of Oregon Trail pioneers, Hibbard’s great-grandparents crossed over on the Oregon Trail from Missouri between March and September of 1847. His grandmother was four years of age during the trip. He attended Glencoe and Richmond grade schools, Portland’s Washington High School and received liberal arts (1934) and law degrees (1936) from the University of Oregon.
During college summers, Hibbard worked at the Crater Lake National Park Lodge performing a host of duties, including boat tours. Among his guests was First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. It was at Crater Lake where he met fellow University of Oregon student, Anne Elizabeth Powell, also working at the lodge. George and Ann were married in 1937, for 54 years until her death on Aug. 14, 1991.
During World War II, Hibbard joined the Army and achieved the rank of captain. His final duty assignment was judge advocate of the 5th Infantry Division. After the war, the Hibbards settled their growing family in Oregon City, where he practiced law for 51 years
Active civically, and professionally, Hibbard at various times was a member and presiding officer of the Oregon City School Board, the Oregon State Bar, the Oregon State Game Commission, the Oregon State Judicial Fitness Commission and the Oregon State Bar Judiciary Committee. He held memberships in the American Bar Association, American College of Probate Counsel, American Academy Hospital Attorneys, Oregon Society of Hospital Attorneys and the University of Oregon Law School Development Fund board of directors.
In the 1970s he led the successful effort of the Oregon State Bar before the Oregon legislature to establish the bar’s Client Security Fund to which all Oregon lawyers contribute annually for the protection of clients who may have legitimate financial claims against defaulting attorneys.
Additional civic organizations Hibbard was involved in include the board of directors of the Columbia Pacific Council of Boy Scouts of America, the Oregon Historical Society, the Western States Bar Conference, and the Salvation Army’s Portland Metropolitan Advisory Board.
Hibbard held fraternal membership in the Oregon City Elks Lodge, University of Oregon Chi Psi Fraternity, Multnomah Lodge No. 1 (AF & AM) and the University Club of Portland. He was the recipient of Oregon City’s Senior First Citizen Award.
With all his civic interests, Hibbard still found time to engage in a wide range of lifelong hobbies including fly fishing, bird hunting, woodworking, Trail Blazers basketball, reading and tending to his rose garden.
Hibbard is survived by his four children; seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
One of Portland’s most prominent trial lawyers, John Ryan, died Dec. 19, 2011, one day shy of his 91st birthday.
John D. Ryan was the second son of Thomas G. Ryan and Virginia Hadley Ryan of Portland. He attended Portland’s U.S. Grant High School and Fordham University in New York City, and became president of the student body at both schools. He finished college early to enlist in World War II and served as a scriptwriter in the AAF First Motion Picture Unit, Culver City, Calif., with subsequent assignments to combat theaters in Europe.
It was in his years of military duty that John developed a literacy program for members of the Armed Services. After military life, he returned to Portland and studied law at Northwestern College of Law (now Lewis & Clark Law School). He became a member of the Oregon State Bar in 1950 and built a distinguished and memorable legal career as a plaintiffs’ trial lawyer for the next 60 years.
Ryan served on the Board of Bar Governors of the Oregon State Bar from 1965 to 1967. He received many awards during his life, including: the Oregon State Bar President’s Special Award of Appreciation (2011); the Multnomah Bar Association Professionalism Award (1997); the Catholic Lawyers for Social Justice Award (1992) and the Oregon Trial Lawyers Association Distinguished Trial Lawyers Award (1993); and the American College of Trial Lawyer membership (1980). He was elected by his fellow Oregon bar members to serve as the state delegate to the American Bar Association for many years. And throughout much of his career as a lawyer, he also found the time to teach torts to law school classes at Northwestern when it was located in downtown Portland. Many notable Oregon lawyers have great memories and stories to tell of their time under his tutelage.
Ryan also chaired the ABA Committee on Literacy. In addition, he and Judge Donald H. Londer of Multnomah County established the Londer Learning Center in northeast Portland, a GED and literacy program. To this day the Londer Center helps scores of people in transition find their way to better lives by learning to read and write. It was finally when he semiretired from the active practice of law that Ryan found the time to write poetry, cookbooks and a memoir.
Above all, Ryan collected and treasured many friends everywhere he went throughout his colorful life. People and the law were his two great loves (along with his wife and his family).
In 1977, he became an Oregon State Bar legend when he almost single-handedly turned back a movement at the bar convention to institute a program of specialization that he described as a curse of over-regulation that would only hobble free lawyers everywhere. His floor speech in Seaside turned the house from pro to con on the proposal, and gave a fiery example to everyone there of what it means to be a courageous and spirited orator. Thereafter and even up until the time he died, Ryan guarded the freedom of lawyers to practice without restraint or additional qualification, many times appearing at meetings or assemblies where the idea revived. The term “Ryanizing” was even coined to describe his ability to use his wit, his tongue and his large heart to stamp out the latest movement that would narrow a lawyer’s field of practice choices.
His skills as a lawyer were matched by his intuitive desires to mentor — and to learn from — those around him, to represent those people who simply needed a caring and capable lawyer without any regard for their ability to pay for his help.
He is survived by his wife, Virginia Wilson Ryan, a nephew (Oregon lawyer Tomas Finnegan Ryan of Portland) and his extended family and friends.
After 14 months of treatment for lung cancer, Ron Podnar died July 19, 2011 at home, surrounded by loved ones and friends. He was 67.
Ronald Joseph Podnar was born Jan. 26, 1944 in Joliet, Ill. He earned his J.D. from Willamette Law School. He enjoyed a 20-year career as an administrative law judge with the Oregon Workers’ Compensation Board. He retired in 2002.
Podnar will be remembered for his sense of adventure, his embrace of life and his ease of making friends everywhere he went. The scope of his many interests and talents included an abiding appreciation of the arts, fly fishing, travel, cooking, martial arts, yoga, languages and history. His intellectual curiosity, easygoing and fun-loving manner and mastery of any subject he attempted, impressed all who knew him. His unique laugh embodied his enjoyment of life, and it will be recalled with love by his friends and family.
Podnar was preceded in death by his parents. He is survived by his wife, Kathy Wallace, a sister, the adopted Dykeman family, a cousin and an extensive circle of friends.
Prominent Seattle lawyer Ted Preg died Oct. 22, 2011, from metastatic pancreatic cancer. He was 66.
Preg was born July 21, 1945, near Buffalo, N.Y., in the farming community of Clarence Center. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1967 and served as a line officer in the Navy during the Vietnam War. That service brought him to Seattle, where he met his wife Nancy on a blind date. They were married in 1971 and lived in northeast Seattle for the rest of his life except for five years spent in Boston, Eugene and Washington, D.C., for law school and a stint with the U.S. Justice Department.
He was a founding member of Preg, O’Donnell & Gillett and enjoyed the challenges of managing attorneys and staff and of helping the firm grow. His legal practice focused primarily on defense of liability matters. He was chosen for several years by his peers as a “Super Lawyer,” and was awarded the highest possible ranking by Martindale. He mentored many lawyers, developed a very wide circle of professional friends, and was known to be a true gentlemen in the legal community.
He enjoyed playing golf at home, and with his golfing buddies, in Scotland, Ireland and at many courses across the United States. He also loved spending time with Nancy at their second house on the salt water in Skagit County, watching birds, ducks and seals, kayaking, biking and taking his dogs for walks. He loved having fun with Husky fans by rooting for his favorite Ducks.
Even under the dark cloud of his final days, he found a silver lining in being able finally to receive Social Security and Medicare benefits that he had paying for the last 40 years.
His wife, Nancy, their two children, two brothers and his wide circle of friends survive.
Gail Achterman, a prominent environmental lawyer and adviser, died Jan. 28, 2012, after a five-month battle with pancreatic cancer. She was 62.
“Gail was an extraordinary person who made exceptional contributions to Oregon and to our firm,” said Bob Van Brocklin, managing partner of Stoel Rives, where Achterman was once partner. “She brought great energy to everything she did, and will be remembered by all of us who worked with her and knew her well as an unwavering friend, a passionate advocate, a skilled lawyer and a thoughtful and talented steward of Oregon’s natural resources and environment.”
Born Aug. 1, 1949, Achterman was a fourth-generation Oregonian who grew up in Salem. She earned her undergraduate degree in economics from Stanford in 1971, graduated from the University of Michigan Law School in 1974 and earned a master’s degree in natural resources policy and management from Michigan in 1975.
She began her legal career as an attorney in the solicitor’s office of the U.S. Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C., in 1975, where she advised the Bureau of Land Management and the Bureau of Reclamation. In 1978, she returned to Oregon to join Stoel Rives, where she helped build the first natural resources and environmental practice group in the Pacific Northwest.
In 1987, newly elected Oregon Gov. Neil Goldschmidt asked Achterman to become his policy adviser for natural resources, a position she held from 1987 through 1990. In the governor’s office, she worked on a wide range of resource, environmental and energy initiatives, including the management of Oregon’s federal and state forests and public lands.
In 1991, Achterman returned to Stoel Rives, where she continued her natural resources practice until 2000, when she left to become executive director of the Deschutes Resources Conservancy in Bend, working to develop voluntary, market-based watershed restoration programs. In 2003, she became the first full-time director of the Institute for Natural Resources at Oregon State University.
During her career Achterman was continuously engaged in federal, state and local policy issues, including as a citizen volunteer. Among her many involvements, she served on the Oregon Transportation Commission from 2000 until 2011, including as chair of the Commission from 2007 until August 2011.
William (Bill) Mehlhaf, a shareholder in the Markowitz, Herbold, Glade & Mehlhaf firm, lost his battle with cancer. He died Feb. 4, 2012, at age 60.
Mehlhaf was a seasoned litigator and business attorney who earned numerous accolades during his 37-year legal career. He was known for his professionalism, intellect, work-ethic and his wry sense of humor.
“Bill was a good friend and we are devastated by his loss,” said Peter Glade, MHGM managing shareholder. “He was an excellent lawyer and it has been a privilege to call him my partner for the past 22 years.”
During his career, Mehlhaf handled some of the firm’s most significant litigation. His colleagues remember the meticulous preparation he put into every case, and his exceptional ability to capture the attention of a jury and communicate facts in a simple and persuasive way. Mehlhaf was confident and tenacious when representing his clients, many of whom became loyal friends.
Mehlhaf was recognized in The Best Lawyers in America for commercial litigation, and was honored as an Oregon Super Lawyer. He was listed as a Litigation Star by Benchmark Litigation, and Portland Monthly magazine rated him among the top lawyers in the city.
Mehlhaf was a lifelong resident of the Willamette Valley. He grew up in Corvallis and received his undergraduate and law degrees from Oregon State University and Lewis & Clark Law School respectively. Before joining the firm as a shareholder in 1989, he was a partner in two other Portland firms and worked as an assistant district attorney for Multnomah County.
Mehlhaf is survived by his wife, Lynn, and a daughter.