Oregon State Bar Bulletin — JULY 2013
Bar People
Among Ourselves
Fourteen attorneys at Smith, Freed & Eberhard have graduated from the firm’s Black Belt Trial Advocacy Training Program, an interactive litigation workshop designed to sharpen and enhance trial skills based on Herbert J. Stern’s “Trying Cases to Win” advocacy series. Students attended trial advocacy training sessions, team meetings, trial skills acting class and prepared and presented two opening statements in front of a mock jury and final review panel. The graduates are: Matt Colley, Bill Taaffe, Nels Vulin, Sharlei Hsu, Michael Quillen, Scott MacLaren, CJ Martin, Tasha Cosimo, Courtney Robinson, Matt Duckworth, Mike Staskiews, Catherine Becker, Bill Kiendl and Curtis Chambers. For information about the program, contact Justin Wickizer, jwickizer@ smithfreed.com or (503) 227-2424.
Brent Renison, partner in the immigration firm Parrilli Renison, was appointed in June to serve as chair of a national committee, the Access to Counsel Task Force of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. He also became chair of the Oregon chapter of AILA effective June 2013 for a one-year term. Renison’s practice focuses on business immigration, family immigration and litigation to secure immigrant rights, for which he has received multiple awards.
The Oregon Area Jewish Committee recently honored two Portland lawyers. The Judge Learned Hand Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded to Jonathan A. Ater and the Community Leadership Award was given toTrung Tu. For more than 40 years, Ater, a health care lawyer and senior partner at Ater Wynne, has provided strategic advice to business enterprises and public bodies. He serves as a principal or general counsel for several entities and for the Medical Society of Metropolitan Portland, as director of Axio Research and Metropolitan Public Defenders. Tu, a partner at McEwen Gisvold, is a recognized litigation and appellate attorney who has garnered several awards, including the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association’s “Best Lawyers Under 40” and Oregon Super Lawyers Rising Star.
Robert Weiss is the author of a short piece in the July-August 2013 issue of World War II Magazine entitled “View from the Hill.” The writing tells about his experience on Hill 314 in the Battle of Mortain in August 1944. The battle was the largest German counterattack in France in the war. The piece was written in connection with the publication of an excerpt from the recently published The Guns at Last Light: The War in Western Europe, 1944-1945 by Rick Atkinson. This work is the third volume of Atkinson’s World War II Liberation Trilogy, the first volume of which won the 2003 Pulitzer Prize. Weiss is the author of “Fire Mission! The Siege at Mortain, Normandy, August 1944” and “Mardi Gras at the Monastery” and other stories.
Doug Bray, court administrator for the Multnomah County Circuit Court in Portland, is a recipient of the National Center for State Courts’ 2012 Distinguished Service Award, one of the highest awards presented by the organization. Oregon Supreme Court Justice David Brewer, who serves on the center’s board of directors, presented the award to Bray during an event on May 28. During his 40-year career with the Oregon judicial branch, Bray has served on numerous state judicial committees to improve the state’s administration of justice. He was instrumental in the study and implementation of projects ranging from courthouse renewal to new court technologies to court childcare projects to civil, family and criminal law docket programs. Bray began his career in court administration as an intern in the Office of the State Court Administrator in 1971. He has worked as the court administrator since 1991.
Noah Gordon, in-house counsel at Shannon Pratt Valuations, recently contributed the chapter “Standards of Value for Partnership and Limited Liability Company Buyouts” to the second edition of Standards of Value. The book offers attorneys a useful survey of standards of value and their treatment in varying contexts across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. It can be browsed and purchased at wiley.com.
Nancy J. Hungerford of the Hungerford Law Firm has been elected to a two-year term as a board member of the National Council of School Attorneys, an organization affiliated with the National School Boards Association. Her firm represents more than 100 Oregon school districts and community colleges, with a practice almost exclusively in the area of education and labor law.
Mary Lawrence, former University of Oregon School of Law professor, is the 2013 recipient of the Burton Award for Outstanding Contributions to Legal Writing Education. The award honors outstanding contributions in legal writing, and in particular to the education of new lawyers in the area of legal analysis and research and writing. The award was presented in June at a gala event at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Lawrence played a vital role in the inception of a legal research and writing program at the U.O. law school; she led its legal research and writing program until 2000, when she retired. She has won numerous awards for service to the legal profession, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013 from the Association of Legal Writing Directors and the Legal Writing Institute, and a Meritorious Service Award in 2010 from U.O.
Todd Cleek of Cleek Law Office has been elected to a one-year term as vice president of the board of directors for Venture Portland, a support organization for Portland’s 50 neighborhood business districts. The program provides the neighborhood districts with training, technical assistance and grant funding.
Jessica Mindlin received Transition Project’s Women’s Advocacy Award, honoring her 30-plus years working to end violence against women. Mindlin is the national director for the Victim Rights Law Center, a nonprofit organization leading a new response to sexual assault. She also directs the VRLC’s Portland office, which provides free legal services to victims of rape and sexual assault.
Clackamas attorney K. William Gibson has been named the 2013 recipient of the Samuel S. Smith Award by the ABA Law Practice Management Section. The award is the highest honor bestowed by the section, recognizing an individual who has demonstrated outstanding lifetime achievement in the field of law practice management. He will receive the award at a reception during the ABA Annual Meeting in San Francisco on Aug. 9. Gibson has contributed to the section through his service as the 2001-2002 section chair and as a council member of five years. Currently, he serves as a member of the Law Practice Magazine Board and, until recently, served on a strategy and planning committee.
Wally Van Valkenburg, managing partner of the Portland office of Stoel Rives, has been elected to the Portland State University Foundation Board of Trustees. Van Valkenburg practices in the firm’s technology and intellectual property group, where he focuses on transactions and business counseling. He has served as the chair of the Oregon Business Development Commission since he was appointed by the governor in 2003. He is an active community member and serves on the boards of the Oregon Business Council and Greater Portland Inc., as well as serving as a member of the Oregon Innovation Council.
Eleanor A. DuBay of Tomasi Salyer Baroway has been admitted to the Idaho State Bar and the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho. DuBay focuses her practice on representing lenders and secured creditors in consumer and commercial real estate foreclosures, troubled debt restructuring, loan workouts, bankruptcies and general civil litigation.
Ater Wynne is the highest-ranking law firm on Oregon Business magazine’s 2013 100 Best Green Companies to Work for List, coming in at 27th on the list, up from last year’s 32nd ranking. According to Oregon Business, the 100 Best Green Companies were determined by more than 18,000 employees from the 440 companies and nonprofits that took part in two anonymous surveys.
The Lane County Bar Association has announced its 2013-14 board members and officers. Officers are: Megan Livermore, Gaydos, Churnside & Balthrop, president; Hon. Mustafa Kasubhai, Lane County Circuit Court, president-elect; and Karrie McIntyre, Parrish & McIntyre, secretary/treasurer. Directors are : Don Corson, Corson & Johnson Law Firm; Julie Gentili Armbrust, Mediation Northwest; Rebekah Hanley, University of Oregon School of Law; K.C. Huffman, Thorp, Purdy, Jewett, Urness & Wilkinson; Tom Moseman, Gleaves, Swearingen, Potter & Scott; and Natalie Scott, Scott Law Group.
The Lane County Bar Association announces its 2013 award recipients: Lynn Shepard, Shepard Law Offices, the Andrew Clement Pro Bono Award; Hon. Eveleen Henry, Lane County Circuit Court, the Distinguished Service Award; and Frank C. Gibson, Hutchinson, Cox, Coons, Orr & Sherlock, the Joseph M. Kosydar Award for Professionalism.
For the third year in a row, Stoel Rives has received a Gold Standard Certification from the Women in Law Empowerment Forum, a leading organization for women in law dedicated exclusively to women from the Amlaw 100, Second Hundred and Fortune 1000 corporate law departments. Of the more than 300 law firms solicited this year, Stoel Rives was one of only 42 nationwide to meet the certification requirements.
Leonard DuBoff, founder and principal of the DuBoff Law Group, was recently honored with the Distinguished Eagle Award presented by the National Eagle Scout Association and the Cascade Pacific Council of the Boy Scouts of America. DuBoff joins notables such as President Gerald Ford, Medal of Honor winners, astronauts and other leading figures in the United States in receiving the distinguished honor.
The Association for Continuing Legal Education has honored the OSB Legal Publications Department with its Best Award of Outstanding Achievement for the 2012 revision of Administering Oregon Estates. Thanks go to the bar’s editorial review board Jonathan Levy and Philip N. Jones, as well as the 21 volunteer authors: David C. Streicher, Nikki C. Hatton, Holly N. Mitchell, Melinda Leaver Roy, Lisa N. Bertalan, Janice Hatton, Leslie Sutton,William D. Brewer, Nicholas M. Frost, Timothy J. Wachter, Helen Rives Pruitt, Jonathan S. Levy, Katie Groblewski, Sam Friedenberg, Amy E. Bilyeu, Steven A. Nicholes, Richard W. Miller, Philip N. Jones, Jeffrey M. Cheyne, Jan K. Kitchel and Katherine O. VanZanten.
Sarah Kutil of Smith, Freed & Eberhard has been admitted to the Washington bar. Kutil’s practice focuses on construction and development claims. She represents landowners, developers and contractors in construction claims and contract disputes. Reach her at skutil@smithfreed.com.
Moves
McKinley Irvin has moved from its offices on Southwest First Avenue in downtown Portland to 1000 S.W. Broadway, Suite 1810, Portland, OR 97205.
William H. Holmes and Teresa A. Hillhave joined the Portland office of K&L Gates as partners in the firm’s energy and infrastructure projects and transactions practice. Both arrive from Stoel Rives. Holmes advises investors, independent power producers, utilities and renewable energy companies on various energy law matters, including: major power purchase agreements; the development, purchase and sale of energy projects; build-transfer agreements; EPC and O&M contracts; energy storage; and fuel supply agreements. Hill counsels clients on power purchase agreements, environmental and land use approvals, due diligence reviews, environmental compliance and permitting, and appearances before administrative agencies.
The Victim Rights Law Center recently expanded its Portland office with the addition of attorneys Shalini P. Vivek and Sheri E. Osher. Vivek previously was a staff attorney at the VRLC office in Boston, Mass., where her practice focused on employment and immigration. Osher was most recently an associate at Laidlaw & Laidlaw and previously practiced in the areas of safety, housing and public benefits. In addition to providing free legal services, the VRLC is recruiting attorneys for its new pro bono project. For more information, contact Vivek or Osher at (503) 274-5477 or vrlcoregon@victimrights.org
Professor Robert James Miller is leaving Lewis & Clark Law School after 14 years of full-time teaching to teach civil procedure and Indian law courses at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University in Phoenix. He is joining ASU’s leading Indian Legal Program and will concentrate on American Indian economic development issues.
Joanna R. Brody has joined Lane Powell as an attorney in the labor and employment practice group, where she will advise clients on a variety of employment issues, including termination, protected leave, disability accommodation, wage and hour, and independent contractor/employee status. Brody previously was an associate at Jackson Lewis, where she represented employers in federal and state court litigation, and in Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Bureau of Labor and Industries investigations involving claims of discrimination, retaliation, harassment, wrongful termination, and wage and hour violations.
Mark R. Kannen has joined Thorp, Purdy, Jewett, Urness & Wilkinson as an attorney in the firm’s Springfield office. Kannen graduated in 2011 from the University of Oregon School of Law and was admitted to the Oregon State Bar in 2012. His areas of practice are business, civil litigation, land use, local government law and real property.
Brian J. Millington has joined Thorp, Purdy, Jewett, Urness & Wilkinson, as a shareholder. Millington’s practice concentration areas are appeals, civil litigation, local government law, basic estate planning, taxable estate planning, and taxable estate and trust administration. He joined the firm in 2006.
J. Patrick Graves has joined Chenoweth Law Group after graduating from Lewis & Clark Law School. During law school, Graves clerked for the Oregon Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Justice, and served as an associate editor and author on Animal Law Review. He has represented both plaintiffs and defendants, and has worked on cases involving environmental cleanup, insurance coverage, real estate disputes, land use permitting and toxic torts. Graves will focus on civil litigation as well as environmental, land use, real estate and insurance law.
A. Jeffery Bird has joined Lane Powell’s business practice group in the Portland office. Bird, who joins as a shareholder, will concentrate his practice on assisting clients with complex business transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, public and private securities offerings, tender offers, proxy contests, divestitures for public and private companies, corporate finance, securities law and venture capital transactions. Bird was previously a shareholder at Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt, where he chaired the firm’s business transitions practice group and co-chaired the firm’s corporate finance and securities group.
The U.S. Senate in June confirmed President Obama’s nomination of Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Michael J. McShane to serve as a district judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon. McShane fills a judgeship vacant since September 2011, when District Judge Michael R. Hogan of Eugene assumed senior status. McShane has served on the Multnomah County Circuit Court since 2001, presiding over a variety of jury and bench trials, specializing in complex civil litigation, including class action suits, medical negligence, contracts and general tort cases. He has also served on the state’s death penalty panel since 2003, presiding over 25 capital cases. He was previously a circuit court judge pro tem in Multnomah County from 1997 to 2001. Prior to coming onto the bench, McShane served as an attorney with the Metropolitan Public Defender’s Office in Portland. He serves on the faculty of Lewis & Clark Law School, teaching trial advocacy and a criminal practice seminar and is a frequent presenter on topics ranging from cross examination to search and seizure.
Jose R. Mata has relocated his patent law practice to Bend. In addition to his law degree, Mata has a master’s degree in computer science. Mata is admitted in Oregon, Washington and California, and is registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. His practice is limited to prosecuting patent applications before the USPTO. Most of Mata’s work is performed on contract with the intellectual property law firm of Constellation Law Group, whose clients include Intellectual Ventures. Mata may be reached at (360) 606-1419 or at josemata@matapatentlaw.com.
Caroline Guest has joined Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart as shareholder in the firm’s Portland office. She was previously with the Portland office of Littler Mendelson. Guest is a labor and employment attorney with nearly 20 years of experience in the Portland market. Her practice is a blend of complex litigation, counseling and training. In her litigation practice, she has successfully defended clients in a range of matters, including claims of breach of contract, wrongful discharge and discrimination based on gender, age, disability and sexual harassment. Guest also spends a substantial portion of her practice providing proactive and practical counseling to help clients avoid litigation and achieve continued compliance with federal and state employment laws and regulations. During a brief hiatus from private practice from 2008 to 2010, Guest served as the executive vice president of human resources for a national retailer with more than 27,000 employees throughout the United States and Canada.
Ursula Kienbaum has joined Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart as of counsel in the firm’s Portland office. She was previously with the Portland office of Littler Mendelson. Kienbaum focuses her practice on traditional labor relations and employment law issues related to discrimination and harassment, hiring, performance management and terminations, and independent contractor misclassification issues. She has experience representing clients in unfair labor practice charges, labor arbitrations, complaints of discrimination, retaliation and harassment and agency audits.
José Klein and Banu Ramachandran have joined Barran Liebman as associate attorneys. Both represent employers and management in employment law litigation and provide advice on a full range of employment law matters. Klein earned his J.D. at Harvard Law School. After graduating, he served as a judicial clerk to the Hon. Martha L. Walters of the Oregon Supreme Court. Prior to law school, he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Suriname for two years. Ramachandran attended Columbia Law School and subsequently clerked for the Hon. Pierre N. Leval of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit. She has also served as a Bristow fellow in the U.S. solicitor general’s office.
After 27 years in the Portland-Vancouver area, the last 12 as an assistant city attorney for Vancouver, Terry Weinerhas moved to central Washington after accepting a position as the Ellensburg city attorney. He encourages friends and colleagues to join him Labor Day weekend for the Rodeo and the Kittitas County Fair. He can be reached at 510 N. Anderson St., Ellensburg, WA 98926; phone: (509) 962-7259; email: weinert@ci.ellensburg.wa.us.
John Mansfield has formed MansfieldLaw to represent his clients in commercial and intellectual property litigation, as well as to provide business advice on intellectual property and e-commerce issues. The MansfieldLaw website, www.mansfieldlaw.net, provides an ongoing series of legal updates of interest to businesses and their counsel, focusing on intellectual property and commercial litigation topics. Mansfield will continue to serve as an officer in the Oregon Patent Law Association and the Federal Bar Association, on the District of Oregon Local Rules Advisory Committee, as a 9th Circuit representative for the District of Oregon, as an adjunct professor at Lewis & Clark Law School and as a member of the OSB House of Delegates. MansfieldLaw is located at 121 S.W. Morrison, Suite 400, Portland, OR 97204; phone: (971) 271-8615; email: john@mansfieldlaw.net.
Gosia Fonberg has joined Buchanan, Angeli, Altschul & Sullivan as an associate attorney. Fonberg’s previous experience includes clerking for Thomas M. Coffin, U.S. magistrate judge for the District of Oregon, practicing as a deputy city attorney for the city of Portland, and clerking for federal judges in the Eastern District of California and the Western District of Arkansas. Fonberg received her law degree from Vermont Law School, where she was a member of the Vermont Law Review. She is president-elect of the Oregon chapter of the Federal Bar Association. She can be reached at Gosia@baaslaw.com or (503) 974-5028.
Yoona Park has joined Buchanan Angeli Altschul & Sullivan, as an of counsel attorney. Park was previously an associate attorney at Stoll Berne. She graduated from Lewis & Clark Law School, where she was an associate editor on the Lewis & Clark Law Review and a winner of the Davis Wright Tremaine Ronald K. Reagan Award for best article on an international law topic. She can be reached at Yoona@baaslaw.com or 503-974-5030.
Margaret A. Vining has joined Davis Wright Tremaine as an associate. Vining counsels high-net-worth individuals, business owners and families in trusts and estates matters. She also works with tax-exempt organizations and charitable foundations. Vining earned her J.D. at University of Virginia School of Law and was previously with Holland & Knight.
Andrea M. Barton is the newest addition to the litigation team in Miller Nash’s Portland office. Barton has years of experience advising local businesses, national corporations and nonprofit institutions in the areas of commercial and real estate litigation at Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt. Barton is a member of junior board of the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Oregon and a member of the De La Salle North Catholic High School Leadership Advisory Committee.
In Memoriam
Robert (Bob) Lyle Dressler died May 1, 2013, in Portland. He was 91.
Dressler was born July 2, 1921, in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and raised in Omaha, Neb. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Colorado in 1943. He was a member of Sigma Pi Sigma in Physics and Pi Mu Epsilon in mathematics. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1943 to 1946 as an officer on the U.S.S. Allendale in the Pacific Theater. He was honorably discharged at the rank of lieutenant junior grade. Under the G.I. bill, he attended Harvard Law School, earning a J.D., in 1949.
In 1948 while at Harvard, Dressler married Dawn O’Day. They moved to Portland in 1949. In 1954, following various positions in private and public legal practice including the U.S. attorney’s office, he went into private practice in the partnership of Buhlinger & Dressler and later Dressler & Granada in southeast Portland. He emphasized school and real property law in his law practice, from which he retired in 1986. Upon his retirement, the David Douglas School Board recommended him for the Flag of Learning and Liberty, the third Oregon citizen recipient of this education award. He was an active member of the Oregon State Bar, Multnomah County Bar Association and the American Bar Association.
He donated his time to the First Congregational United Church of Christ, Friendly House, United Way, Kiwanis, Camp Fire Girls, Boy Scouts, Mount Hood Community College (founding board member), Rose City Yacht Club and Pine Mt. Observatory. He was an avid reader. When he was a young man, he enjoyed mountain climbing and photography. All of his life, he loved camping, hunting, canoeing, sailing and astronomy.
His wife, Dawn, died in 1996. He is survived by his three daughters, four grandchildren and beloved friend, Gwen Pierce.