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6 Alaska B. Rag 1 (1982)

handle is hein.barjournals/askabar0006 and id is 1 raw text is: * No. M51 LndzW AhJ *kEW egifA Volume 6, Numbers 11 & 12 C)tgettas. t.ipe tgito November, December Edition $1.00 Governor Fills Three Superior Court Positions by Phyllis Hartke Keene, Cutler, Jeffrey Appointed to New Positions All three recently created Alaska Superior Court seats located in Bar- row, Palmer and Wrangell are now fill- ed. Governor Hammond announced the last appointment on November 15, 1982, the last day of the 45-day period calculated from the date the Alaska Judicial Council submitted nomina- tions, in which to exercise his power to appoint judgeships for the vacant seats. These net posts created by the 1982 legislature have base salaries of $72,000 annually, Shocked and Surprised The latest appointment was Judge Henry C. Keene, Jr., currently on the bench of the First Judicial District Court in Ketchikan. Judge Keene is the new judge for, the Superior_ _ourt( judgeship based in Wrangell. Keene stated he was shocked and surprised' to receive the appointment, and that although he would take time to move he expressed that he would act as fast as possible and expects to be relocated to Wrangell by mid-December. Judge Keene will have completed 15 years and nine months on the District Court bench in Ketchikan when he terminates his position at the end of November. While in this position he has served under three Superior Court justices in Ketchikan and has had occasion to visit 17 different cities in the State of Alaska, including Nome, Palmer and Hyder and has spent two to four weeks out of each year on the bench in An- chorage. Accordinly, he is familiar with Alaska and its needs. Keene's Principles Attorneys practicing before Judge Keene's court should be aware of the four guiding principles Keene recog- nizes and abides by-to be fair, pa- tient, polite and make decisions. In ad- dition to these principles, Keene said that he feels punctuality is very impor- tant, even though a lot of attorneys ob- ject to this standard and goal. Judge Keene also warns that there will be no dog, cat and pony shows in his courtroom. (To this remark Keene made reference to Gail Fraities' court cases, with which I am not familiar.) Prior to becoming District Court Judge in Ketchikan, Keene spent 26 years in the Coast Guard aboard 10 different ships. While performing general line duty functions, he was also appointed legal officer and throughout his military career effectuated legal as- signments as far away as Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico. The three years spent in Puerto Rico was in the posi- tion of legal officer over the fleet's legal affairs and matters. Keene performed many similar service-connected magistrate duties prior to military re- tirement. Regarding his personal life, he has a wife, and four children. His son, Clay Keene, practices law in Ketchi- kan. A daughter, Charla, is an elemen- tary school teacher in Ketchikan. An- other son, James, is currently complet- ing a course in Salem and anticipates joining the fire department of Juneau upon its completion. James is engaged to be married in November. Judge Keene has another son, Lt. Jr. Gr. Scott Keene, currently with the Coast Guard and whose wife also Lt. Jr. Gr. in the Coast Guard is expecting their first child (Judge Keene's first grandchild) which is due anytime now. Judge Keene said that with the excitement of his son's (James) wedding and his other son's (Scott) first child (the judge's grandchild) and with the Governor's appointment to the Superior Court, there has been little time to think or re- act to the appointment. First female Governor Hammond's other two Superior Court judgeship appoint- ments on October 28, 1982 went to Beverly W. Cutler and Michael I. Jef- frey. Anchorage District Court Judge Cutler, age 33, assumes the new judge- ship based in Palmer and holds the distinction of being the first fe- male on the Superior Court bench. Cutler has been on the District Court bench since 1977, and was appointed by the Governor because of the out- standing job she-has done. Hammond said that she has already proven her- self as a sensitive, capable judge who has a firm grasp of the law and the abil- ity to make well-reasoned decisions. She won strong support from attorneys in the Anchorage and Palmer areas, whom she will practice before - being ranked first by a wide margin in a poll of Anchorage Bar Association workers. Michael I. Jeffrey, age 37, has worked since 1977 for the Alaska Legal Services in Barrow. Jeffrey, the leading bar poll finisher for the new Barrow judgeship, was selected according to the Governor because he understands well the conditions prevalent in north- ern Alaska, having lived and practiced in Barrow for a number of years. I was impressed by his legal reasoning abili- ty, his philosophy and what I expect will be his manner on the bench. INSIDE ane's Poems ......... 2 Diane's Fantasies ..... 2 Arnett's Advice ...... 4 Bar's Budget ......... 7 Ken's Pix .......... 8,9 Bev's Interview 10, 11, 12 Season s Greetings Conflict Resolution Center Established Most lawyers, in and out of private practice, frequently come into con- tact with disputes which they feel helpless to resolve by traditional means. The dolla amount involved may be too small to make litigation economic- ally fas-ible or th iure of a lawsuit may be worse than the disease when the parties must continue to live together as in a landlord-tenant conflict. After years of incubation, Anchorage is at last getting what hundreds of other communities have: a Conflict Resolution Center designed to aid in resolution of minor disputes through mediation and, eventually, arbitration. The Conflict Resolution Center commenced its existence as theCom- mittee on Alternative Dispute Resolution of the Alaska Bar Association. Under the chairship of Conuie Sipe, the Committee moved from studying the problem of the extra-judicial resolution of minor disputes to the forma- tion.of agency-to deal with the problem. In February, 1981, the Committe disbanded and was recreated as the Anchorage Citizen's Ar,ration and Mediation Project, Inc. The name was later changed to Conflict Resolution Center. After obtaining Municipal funding in the spring of 1982, the Center hired its executive director, Margie Ennis, and prepared to train volunteer mediators and commence opera- tions. The Center started takin& clients on OcJober 1. 1982.. The concepts of mediation and arbitration of minor disputes have had a wide acceptance in the last decade or so. Support has been given through Federal legislation. I._ U.S.L. Sec. _...J, the Special Committee on Alternate Means of Dispute Resolutions of the American Bar Association, and literally hundreds of Conflict Dispute Centers or Neighborhood Justice Centers set up in all parts of the Republic. In the beginning the Conflict Resolution Center will offer mediation services to resolve disputes where there is no serious threat of violence, and preferably where the parties will continue: in an opgcafsi relationship. Typical of such disputes are landlord-tenant probhims, ntihborhood dis- agreements (as over barking dogs), and conmisner-retailer disputes. The mediators will be volunteers who undergo a rigorous 40-hour training program given by experienced trainers from the Center for Dispute Resolution in Denver. The mediation process will be, Insofar as possible, non-adversarial. The emphasis will be on finding a solution that all parties can live with, rather than on fault-finding or a determination of who is right or wrong. Even if only one party to the dispute contacts the Center, outreach [continued on page 31

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