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16 Or. St. B. Bull. 1 (1955-1956)

handle is hein.barjournals/osbb0016 and id is 1 raw text is: OREGON STATE BAR BULLETIN VOL. XVI OCTOBER, 1955 No. 1 REVIEW OF YEAR GIVEN BY YOKOM By Doug McKean Orval D. Yokom, John Day, made his final appearance before members of the Oregon State Bar as president at the board of governors luncheon on Saturday noon. At the conclusion of his report he turned the gavel over to George A. Rhoten, Salem, whom the board elected as presi- dent for 1955-56. Presentation of the award of merit for the year to Gunther K. Krause, Portland, chairman of the committee on judicial ad- ministration, was a feature of the lunch- eon session. The retiring president told his audience that legislative activity is one of the most important functions of the bar of this state. The bar, he declared, has a definite and well defined responsibility in this field. To meet this responsibility, Yokom rec- ommended that a representative commit- tee of the Bar be appointed having full authority to make recommendations to the board as to the action to be taken by it to sponsor and support legislation proposed at annual meetings. Such a committee, he suggested, might be composed of a delegate from each local bar association. He noted that of 40 bills sponsored by the Bar, 29 passed and one was vetoed by the governor. Yokom called this a record of no small achievement and he commended Alex- ander G. Brown, chairman of the legisla- tive committee, members who appeared in behalf of bills and Gunther Krause, who he said did yeoman work on behalf of the Bar's legislative program. He called particular attention to the act which eliminated any confusion as to the Bar's status. This matter which he said the Bar regarded as a life and death mat- ter amended the act to omit the words, is an agency of the state. The board, he said, feels that the act now makes the Oregon State Bar the in- strumentality that we, and the framers of the original act, intended it to be. Yokom praised lawyers who participated in the legislative legal aid program but said he believes there is some duplication and overlapping of work done by the Bar and the Legislative Counsel. He recommended that the committee on public service and information meet with the legislative council prior to the next session to eliminate this duplication and the legislative counsel prior to the next explore the feasibility of extending legal assistance to legislative committees. The retiring president took up the sub- (Continued on Page 5, Column 1) GEO. RHOTEN NEW PRESIDENT OF BAR George A. Rhoten, Salem, member of the senior class of the board of gover- nors, was elected president of the Oregon State Bar for 1955-56 at a meeting of the board at Baker September 21, immediately preceding the 21st annual meeting. Rhoten, serving his third year on the board, is a Marion county native and a graduate of Willamette university where he received his law degree in 1927. He suc- ceeds Orval D. Yokom, John Day, as presi- dent of the state bar. Other officers elected were Moe M. Ton- ken, Portland, vice-president; Clarence D. Phillips, Portland, treasurer, and John 1. Holloway, Portland, reelected secretary. Tonkon was named to the board earlier this year to take the place vacated by Judge Paul R. Harris, Portland, who re- signed upon being appointed to the circuit bench. The new officers took office at the board of governors luncheon on Saturday noon, at which time Yokom gave his report upon his stewardship during the past year. The new members of the board also took office at that time. They are John A. Heltzel, Salem; Robert H. Foley, Bend; Bert S. Gooding, Portland, and George W. Neuner, Roseburg. The new members met with the board at their meeting at Baker prior to taking office in order to familiarize themselves with the work. Retiring members of the board were Wendell Wyatt, Astoria, who was unable to attend the meeting; Presi- dent Yokom, Thomas H. Tongue III, Port- land, and Samuel M. Bowe, Grants Pass. Meeting after the new members had taken office, one of the first things done was to appoint a committee on committees to prepare the list for the new year. Named to this committee were Tonkon, chairman; George H. Corey, Pendleton, Gooding and Neuner. This committee met in Portland on Oc- tober 15, with other members of the board and Secretary Holloway. The list as pre- pared by this committee will be considered by the board when it meets in Portland on October 28. The annual award of merit was voted to Gunther F. Krause, Portland. The award was made at the governors luncheon on Saturday and was received by his son, Donald G. Krause, In the absence of Gun- ther Krause who was unable to attend the annual meeting this year. Krause was the 1954-55 chairman of the state bar and the Multnomah Bar asso- ciation's committee on judicial administra- tion. It was to a considerable degree due to his efforts at Salem during the last ses- (Continued on Page 4, Column 3) CONVENTION HEARS WILSON AND BELLI By Doug MeKean Two outstanding speakers, one a noted trial lawyer from San Francisco, Melvin M. Belli, and the other the president of the University of Oregon, Dr. 0. Meredith Wilson, spoke to the annual meeting of the Oregon State Bar at Baker on Friday. Belli was the luncheon speaker that day and Dr. Wilson spoke at the annual dinner that night. Belli in his talk was critical of the power of the courts to use their dis- cretionary power to reduce jury awards in personal injury cases. Dr. Wilson's talk was, in effect, a chal- lenge to the bar to preserve and maintain its high standing and its recognition as the bulwark of the rights of man. Dr. Wilson was introduced by A. S. Grant, Baker, while James Landye, Portland, presided at the luncheon at which Belli spoke. President Wilson suggested that lawyers take stock of themselves. He noted that while neither the legal nor medical profes- sion started out in this country with much status, the lawyers were the first to achieve this standing. Now, he said, the situation is reversed. A Carnegie survey in the late 1940's, he noted, found that the public ranks doctors first among professional men who best abide by their ethics, dentists second and lawyers a poor third. President Wilson quoted his brother, a California attorney, as saying a successful lawyer is one who can afford to send his son to medical school. The golden age of the profession in this country occurred before the Civil war, Dr. Wilson said, and he listed Chief Justice John Marshall as one of the greatest repre- sentatives of the p.iofession. The real giants of the era, he continu- ed, relied on reason and were concerned with the search for the good of man, It was the supreme court of Marshall's time which gave the constitution flesh and blood and made it walk like a man, Wil- son said. Speaking of the action of courts in re- ducing or setting aside jury awards, Belli said such use of the discretionary power was an example of tyranny replacing de- mocracy. And tyranny, I truly fear, is re- placing democracy in this regard in too many of the courts of our land, he added. The San Francisco attorney, who was quite frankly expressing the viewpoint of plaintiff attorneys in personal damage cases, prefaced his remarks on discretion- ary power with examples of the manner in which he uses demonstrative evidence in injury cases. (Continued on Page 6, Column 1)

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