New website for pro bono attorneys

The Oregon State Bar and the three Oregon Law Schools proudly announce a new tool to both support lawyers who provide pro bono services to clients and to give law students an additional venue to work with practicing attorneys: 

ORprobonostudent.net

This website is designed to connect lawyers handling a pro bono matter with law students who can provide pro bono student help. Lawyers from across the state, as well as students from all three law schools—Lewis and Clark, University of Oregon and Willamette—have access to the website.

The site is user-friendly for both lawyers and law students. Lawyers can list the help they need by area of law, then answer a series of questions including the level of law student whose help you’d prefer, special skills needed, and how soon the project needs to be completed. Law students from all three schools can access the site by contacting their career services office for a password.

Attorneys receive capable assistance that allows the attorneys to offer more complex legal services for free. Law students receive an opportunity to gain real-world experience while helping the underprivileged obtain desperately-needed legal services.

12/6/10 - CLE Child Abuse Reporting with Helen M. Hierschbiel, General Counsel to the Oregon State Bar, noon - 1 pm

Location: Ford Hall Board Room, Willamette University
Price: $15 for non-MLLS-members; $10 for MLLS members; $5 for post-graduate law clerks; and free to students and others not-seeking credit.

This year's MLLS holiday charity is Liberty House, Marion County's only child abuse assessment center, the only place providing special medical assessment services for children. Liberty House is a neutral child abuse assessment center. It also provides information and support for non-offending caregivers. An opportunity to donate to this worthy organization will be provided at the end of the CLE.

Biography of Helen M. Hierschbiel

Helen M. Hierschbiel is General Counsel of the Oregon State Bar where, among other things, she gives ethics guidance to lawyers.  She started working at the Oregon State Bar in December 2003 in the Client Assistance Office, screening complaints against lawyers.  While at the bar, she has written numerous articles and given dozens of presentations regarding lawyers' ethical obligations.  Prior to working for the Oregon State Bar, she worked at Dunn Carney Allen Higgins & Tongue in Portland, Oregon and for DNA-Peoples Legal Services on the Navajo and Hopi Reservations in Arizona.  She received her JD from Lewis & Clark, Norwesthern School of Law, in 1991.

CLE Materials

Questions and (Some) Answers About Mandatory Child Abuse Reporting
Child Abuse Reporting Phone Numbers
Child Abuse Reporting Hypotheticals



Building Female Citizenship Beyond Suffrage: Early Women Candidates and Office Holding in Oregon..

by Jill Tanner

..was the title of Professor Kimerly Jensen's entertaining and educational presentation at the November 16, 2010, Mary Leonard Law Society monthly meeting. Professor Jensen briefly recapped Oregon’s forty year history culminating in women suffrage in 1912, which was eight years before the federal amendment giving women the right to vote in 1920. She explained that to be an office holder one needed to be a voter and “suffrage was a vital bridge to expand women’s rights.” 

In 1862 the Oregon legislature passed a law allowing women to vote in school elections:  “Women who are widows, and have children and taxable property in the district may vote, by written proxy or in person at such meetings, if they choose.”

In November, 1872, The Daily Oregonian reported “The Votes of the Ladies” were accepted but not counted!

In 1878, women who were 21 years of age, Oregon citizens, widows, had children, and owned property were allowed to vote “at a school meeting” in the district, and most important, those women ran and held elective educational offices, primarily in rural Oregon counties like Curry and Umatilla and coastal counties like Clatsop.  Unfortunately, the law permitting women to hold elective educational offices was declared unconstitutional in 1896 when the Oregon Supreme Court held that the Oregon Constitution, Article 6, section 8 required an elector to be a male citizen.  Even though the law was declared unconstitutional, Emma Warren held the office of Clatsop School Superintendant from 1904 through 1908 in what Professor Jensen characterized as “creative civil disobedience,” relying on the lawful election of a man who resigned and appointed Warren to fill the post.

The list of women candidates who ran for state offices from 1914 through 1920 are found in their filed campaign expenditure reports.  Two women, Manche Langley and Celia Gavin, were lawyers, and Marian Towne, who studied law for a term, served as representative from Jackson County from 1914 - 1916.  Langley won the primary but not the general election in her bid to represent the 15th District, Washington County in 1916.  Gavin studied law with her father in The Dalles and served three terms as City Attorney before running as a candidate for Democrat Presidential Elector in 1920.

The candidacy of Bertha Mason Buland in 1916 was characterized by Professor Jensen as giving a woman “an ability to be her own person.”  Buland was a married woman whose husband worked in Washington state and maintained a second residence in Washington during the work week.  He was a registered Washington voter. Her candidacy was challenged because he owned property and voted in another state.  Even though Buland was not elected, the fact that she was allowed to run for office was a “landmark” event in the fight for women suffrage.

The 1920 primary election to represent the Third District in the U. S Congress presented voters with a rare choice in Oregon history:  two female candidates vying for the same elective office.  Two qualified women, Esther Pohl Lovejoy and Sylvia McGuire Thompson, running against one another for the same office, according to Professor Jensen, was a tangible result of expanded female citizenship and was to be celebrated.  Professor Jensen stated that Esther Lovejoy brought considerable credentials to the campaign: Portland City Health Officer 1907-1909, suffrage activist at the local and national levels, wartime service in France, president of the Medical Women's International Association and acting president of the Medical Women's National Association, and director of the American Women's Hospitals, a transnational medical relief organization.  She was an author and local, national, and international figure.

Sylvia McGuire Thompson served in the 1917 and 1919 Oregon legislative  sessions and in the special 1920 session, where her House Bill #1 became Oregon's ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment for federal woman suffrage. 

Lovejoy's national and international experience, according to Professor Jensen, won out. She garnered 57 percent of the primary vote. Unfortunately, Lovejoy lost the general election to Republican incumbent C.N. McArthur but received a strong 44 percent of the vote.

Everyone was disappointed when it was time for Professor Jensen to conclude her presentation. There is so much history waiting to be shared!  Professor Jensen received her Ph.D. from the University of Iowa in women’s and U.S. history and teaches history and gender studies at Western Oregon University.  She is the author of Mobilizing Minerva: American Women in the First World War  (University of Illinois Press, 2008) and coeditor,with Erika Kuhlman, of Women  and Transnational Activism in Historical Perspective (Dordrecht: Republic of Letters, 2010). Her current research and writing focuses on Esther Clayson Pohl Lovejoy (1869-1967), an Oregon public health and suffrage activist, organizer and first president of the Medical Women’s International Association, pioneer in transnational medical relief, and historian of women in medicine.

To read more about Oregon women suffrage and share Professor Jensen’s on-going research and exciting historical discoveries visit her blog:  kimberlyjensenblog.blogspot.com.  Professor Jensen invites everyone to collaborate to make next year’s suffrage centennial spectacular.

Mary Leonard Law Society sincerely thanks Professor Jensen for taking time out of her busy schedule, especially when the Fall college term was coming to a close, to relive Oregon women’s suffrage history.

12/10 - Courthouse Connection, Marion County Courthouse, Jury Assembly Room, noon - 1 pm

Holiday Social Event

MLLS is joining with the Marion County Bar Association in collecting toys for “Santa Central.” Make a foster child’s holiday special by bringing a gift to Courthouse Connection! The wish list includes: anything Leap Frog or Fisher Price, BMX-style bikes for young teenagers, Legos, radio controlled cars and trucks, gift cards and nearly anything else one can think of. Please don’t wrap the gifts.

All donations are 100% tax deductible.  Checks may be made payable to "Santra Central."  Cash donations will also be accepted at the event.

Hosted by Presiding Judge Jamese Rhoades

Professor Kimberly Jensen

The Honorable Rebecca Duncan Inspires New Admittees

by Katharine M. Lozano

On October 26, 2010, the Mary Leonard Law Society held its fifth annual luncheon to welcome new admittees to the bar, at Alessandro’s in Salem. Naegeli Reporting Corporation co-sponsored the event.


The Honorable Rebecca Duncan, newest member of the Oregon Court of Appeals, and former trial attorney, appellate attorney, and Assistant Chief Defender and Deputy Defender, Office of Public Defense Services - Appellate Division, spoke at the luncheon. She offered the new admittees both congratulations and a challenge. Judge Duncan urged, “We are the heirs to a very rich inheritance, but it is not ours to spend; it is ours to invest.” She shared the history of her farming family and her own personal experiences, recalling the limited career choices available to her mother and aunts, which she contrasted with her own childhood ambitions to pursue a legal career, a profession that “no one ever suggested wasn’t an option for me.” Expressing gratitude for the encouragement and support offered by her parents’ generation, and noting the encouragement and support available to the new Oregon admittees from the more seasoned practitioners in the room, Judge Duncan described what the practice of law has meant to her – a double-sided gift of opportunity and obligation.


She highlighted the opportunities in the practice of law to satisfy intellectual curiosity, enjoy exposure to new ideas, surround ourselves with bright and dedicated professionals, connect to our clients on an individual basis, and explore a wide breadth of issues and topics. Judge Duncan explained, “We in the room are winners of global lottery.” She then challenged the new admittees to live up the obligations of their professional inheritance by finding legal work they love, merging their values with their talents, connecting to our legal community, and enriching themselves while simultaneously helping members of the public.


Another inspirational feature of our new admittee luncheon was the announcement of the winner of the second annual Mary Leonard Law Society Essay Contest. The essay contest is held for incoming1L students at the Willamette University College of Law and this year’s winner was Kelly Huedepohl, an Iowa native with a background in political science and economics. The theme of this year’s essay contest was the failure of the “pipeline theory,” which incorrectly predicted that increased numbers of women entering the legal profession would result in increased numbers of women in senior leadership positions. Ms. Huedepohl’s essay addressed the issue from an economic perspective.

11/16 - "Building Female Citizenship Beyond Suffrage: Early Women Candidates and Office Holding in Oregon" with Kimberly Jensen, Professor of History and Gender Studies at Western Oregon University, noon - 1 pm

Professor Jensen will discuss the work of women across the political spectrum as local and statewide candidates and office holders in the decades before and after the achievement of women's suffrage in 1912. She will assess the challenges they faced and their accomplishments and legacy and connect their work with the broad movement for equal citizenship in Oregon.

Location: Montag Den, Willamette University*
Price: Free! Brown-bag lunch; food available for purchase from Goudy Commons and Cat Cavern (near the Montag Den)

* The Montag Den is located on the ground floor of Baxter Hall, near the corner of State and 12th Streets.

Presentation Abstract and Speaker Biography:

As Oregon women pursued a more complete female citizenship through voting rights from 1870-1912 and beyond they also worked to achieve another aspect of full citizenship through office holding. This presentation will address the work of women across the political spectrum as local and statewide candidates and office holders in the decades before and after the achievement of women's suffrage in 1912. It will assess the challenges they faced and their accomplishments and legacy and connect their work with the broad movement for equal citizenship in Oregon.

Kimberly Jensen is a Professor of History and Gender Studies at Western Oregon University. She received her Ph.D. in Women's and U.S. History from the University of Iowa in 1992. Her book Mobilizing Minerva: American Women in the First World War was published by the University of Illinois Press in 2008 and was a finalist for the Oregon Book Awards for non-fiction. Her current research project is a biography of Oregon physician, suffragist, and international medical relief director Esther Pohl Lovejoy. She received the Joel Palmer Prize from the Oregon Historical Quarterly for her Fall 2007 article “’Neither Head Nor Tail to the Campaign’: Esther Pohl Lovejoy and the Oregon Woman Suffrage Victory of 1912” and her article “Revolutions in the Machinery: Oregon Women and Citizenship in Sesquicentennial Perspective,” was published in the Fall 2009 issue of the Quarterly. She is also the editor, with Erika Kuhlman, of Women and Transnational Activism in Historical Perspective (Dordrecht: Republic of Letters Press, 2010). Jensen is a member of the editorial boards of the Oregon Historical Quarterly and the Oregon Encyclopedia Project, serves as a commissioner on the Oregon Heritage Commission, and is a member of the board of Century of Action: Oregon Women Vote 1912-2012.

New Admittee Luncheon

New Admittee Luncheon

Power Lunch: Bill Lunch’s Presentation on Politics

 On September 22, 2010, Bill Lunch spoke at a Mary Leonard Law Society noon-hour event on state and national election trends. Dr. Lunch is a professor and Chair of the Political Science Department at Oregon State University, and a longtime political analyst for Oregon Public Broadcasting.  Dr. Lunch began his presentation by distinguishing voter turnout trends for presidential election years (such as 2012) and mid-term election years (such as 2010).  Voting numbers surge in presidential elections years and decline in mid-term election years.  Characteristics in the voting population can also vary depending on a variety of factors.  For the upcoming mid-term elections in November, Dr. Lunch predicts a shift in voter characteristics towards “whiter,” and older, and possibly more male. Such a shift would disproportionaly benefit the Republican Party, Dr. Lunch advised.  He further advised that the decline in President Barack Obama’s popularity will also assist the Republican Party this elections year. 

Dr. Lunch moved on to discuss a variety of state and federal races.  In the race for one of Oregon’s United States Senator, incumbent Ron Wyden currently leads his challengers, including Republican candidate Jim Huffman, by 15 to 20 points.  In the race for one of Washington’s United States Senator, incumbent Patty Murray holds a slight lead over challenger Dino Rossi. 

Dr. Lunch then turned his attention to Oregon’s gubernatorial race.  The Democrat and Republican candidates (John Kitzhaber and Chris Dudley, respectively) are in a “dead heat,” with Dudley having a “tiny edge” over Kitzhaber.  However, Dr. Lunch reported that Dudley faces an additional hurdle in the form of Constitution Party gubernatorial candidate Greg Kord. Dr. Lunch predicts that Kord will attract 4-5% of conversatives voters, effectively taking away votes from Dudley.  The anticipated division of the conservate vote reflects the fractious nature of the conservative movement in Oregon, according to Dr. Lunch.  As for Kitzhaber, the Democratic candidate has not yet consolidated the state’s progressive base. 

Dr. Lunch also discussed the race for Oregon's 5th congressional district (covering Lincoln, Marion, Polk, and Tillamook counties, most of Clackamas County, and part of Benton and Multnomah counties).  The district is currently represented by Democrat Kurt Schrader.  Dr. Lunch stated that Schrader won easily in 2008 because he had no “serious challenger.”  But in this election, Schrader is in a close race with challenger Scott Bruun.  Dr. Lunch’s presentation included some predictions for state and federal races, as well as scenarios for what might happen if Democrats or Republicans succeed.

10/26 - New Admittee Luncheon, Alessandro's Ristorante & Galleria, noon - 1 pm

Please join the Mary Leonard Law Society in welcoming the 2010 new admittees to the Oregon State Bar at a luncheon Tuesday, October 26, 2010. The luncheon welcoming new admittees is a proud Mary Leonard Law Society tradition bringing together judges, members of the Marion County Bar Association, Willamette University College of Law faculty and administrators, and others to welcome the newest additions to the practice of law. This year's keynote speaker will be the Honorable Rebecca A. Duncan  of the Oregon Court of Appeals. Additionally, the winner of the 2010-11 Mary Leonard Law Society/Willamette University College of Law Essay Contest will be introduced.

Price: Free for new admittees; $15 for others.
All luncheon attendees will enjoy a scrumptious hot Italian buffet prepared by Alessandro's Ristorante & Galleria, including chicken, salmon, pasta, salad, bread, and hot beverages.

RSVP:  October 19, 2010

Co-sponsored by Naegeli Reporting Corporation. 

http://www.naegelireporting.com/

http://www.naegelitrialtech.com/

10/12 - Noon - 1 pm, Courthouse Connection, Marion County Courthouse, Courtroom 4D

Please welcome Marion County's newest Circuit Court Judge, The Honorable Dale W. Penn

7/28 - CLE - The Struggle For Fair Housing In America, Presented by Ron Silver, Assistant United States Attorney

            Assistant United States Attorney Ron Silver's presentation The Struggle for Fair Housing in America was the highlight of the Mary Leonard Law Society’s summer continuing legal education program held July 28, 2010.  Silver, who has been as Assistant United States Attorney since 1982 and was awarded the Oregon Trial Lawyers’ Public Justice Award in 2002 for his Fair Housing work, interwove two themes:  first, how the Supreme Court shaped Fair Housing laws through its view of State Action; and second how communities and legislatures struggled with prejudice and equal access to housing.

            Silver opened the event by placing the struggle for fair housing in the historical context of population shifts during the early twentieth century.  In reaction to those demographic changes, many city enacted ordinances mandating segregated housing.  Silver then described the development of Supreme Court case law and of fair housing legislation, continuing to present-day struggles to enforce the law.

            At the heart of Silver’s presentation was a description of Michigan v. Sweet, a murder trial driven by segregated housing in Detroit.  In 1925, Dr. Ossian Sweet, an African American, bought and tried to move into a house in a white neighborhood.  Knowing that other African Americans who had moved into predominately white neighborhoods had been confronted with violence and forced to leave, Sweet asked for police protection.  He also arranged for nine men, all armed with guns, to accompany him and his wife to their new house.

            For two nights after the Sweets moved in, a large mob of whites gathered.  On the second night, as the police stood by, the crowd threw rocks at the Sweets’ house, breaking windows.  Shots were fired from the house, and a man in the crowd was killed.  The police arrested all 11 occupants of the house.  After lengthy interrogation, Henry Sweet, Ossian Sweet’s younger brother, admitted firing a gun. 

            All of the occupants of the Sweet house were charged with murder, and the NAACP arranged for Clarence Darrow to defend them.  After the first trial ended in a hung jury and a mistrial, Henry Sweet was tried alone for murder.  In that second trial, some witnesses admitted both that a large crowd had been present and that the police had told them to deny that fact. 

            In a six-hour closing argument—which Silver condensed and dramatically delivered in less than 30 minutes—Darrow eloquently challenged a jury of 12 white men to consider their prejudices and the role of race in the case.  Darrow asked the jurors to consider whether, if the occupants of the house had been white and the mobs outside had been black, anyone in the house would have been charged with murder.  The jury found Henry Sweet not guilty, and the other defendants were all released. 

            Mary Leonard Law Society extends a very special thank you to Ron Silver for his engrossing and educational presentation and a special thank you to Naegeli Reporting for its sponsorship.

Kate Lonborg clerks for Judge Darleen Ortega at the Oregon Court of Appeals.