Oregon Ping
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Posted on 06/08/2005 11:14:51 AM PDT by ex-Texan
To truly appreciate the audacity of Ater Wynne and the timidity of the Oregon State Bar, you don't need to harbor a grudge, an attitude or a collection of dead lawyer jokes. You need only to read the complaint summary.
And by all means do. Go to www.oregonlive.com and track the reasoning of the bar's disciplinary panel as it warms to the task of body-slamming the Portland law firm . . . and then suddenly takes a cold shower.
But something in the tempting lead makes me pause. Audacity? No, I think we have Ater Wynne pegged. But the "timidity" is making me nervous. Is it possible "timidity" better describes the city of Portland than the state bar?
Let me get everyone up to speed: After representing the city for a year in its attempt to acquire Portland General Electric, the Ater Wynne law firm discovered Enron was dealing with one of its much more important clients: Neil Goldschmidt, a local frontman for Texas Pacific.
Ater Wynne sized up its priorities and quickly ended its relationship with the city, which had already paid the firm $250,000 in legal fees. City officials understood Ater Wynne had a direct conflict of interest. They were much less sympathetic when Ater Wynne began campaigning, on the same day, to help Oregon Electric -- the flimsy "holding" company set up by Texas Pacific -- obtain Public Utility Commission approval to buy PGE.
When attorney Lloyd Weisensee filed a bar complaint against Ater Wynne attorneys Jonathan Ater and Lisa Rackner, the city eagerly made its case. It argued the firm had an untenable conflict of interest because -- to quote the bar's investigation -- it "possessed confidences or secrets obtained through the firm's earlier representation of the City that could have damaged the City in the PUC proceeding."
Ater Wynn chairman William Campbell maintains, "The issues before the PUC did not involve the question of the city's purchase from Enron, nor did it involve the question of negotiating TPG's purchase with Enron."
But the conflict was so obvious to one Ater Wynne attorney, Rochelle Lessner, that she resigned from the firm.
The conflict was so obvious that the city claims Ater Wynne requested a conflict waiver. (The firm denies this.)
The conflict was so obvious that the bar's disciplinary counsel, Mary Cooper, argues, "It is difficult to believe that the Ater Wynne attorneys worked for the City for over a year without obtaining a single confidence or secret that could have been used against the City's interests in the PUC proceedings."
But Cooper complains that in its attempt to prove the obvious, "the bar has run into an investigative dead end." While it seems "likely -- even probable -- that the firm" betrayed its former client's confidences and secrets, Cooper writes, the bar can't prove as much if the city won't identify those confidences and secrets.
Case dismissed.
Because the city is still in the market for PGE, you may understand its reluctance to put its strategy into the public record of a bar investigation.
"The result troubles me deeply, both on behalf of my client and as a member of the Bar," city attorney Linda Meng writes in eloquent protest. "In essence, the Bar has interpreted the rules and court precedent to require clients to waive their privilege in order to protect their privilege."
Weisensee says the bar's decision isn't a whitewash, but a "cop-out." Several lawyers have argued to me that Meng gave the bar more than enough to tee up a full investigation.
But the bar goes out of its way in the complaint summary to argue it is ready to re-open this complaint if and when the city decides to waive attorney-client privilege.
And when you read the summary -- and by all means do -- the bar sounds audaciously eager to examine the veracity and ethics of Ater Wynne.
Steve Duin: 503-221-8597; Steveduin@aol.com; 1320 S.W. Broadway, Portland, OR 97201
First, it is impossible for the city attorneys to waive a privilege reserved in law to their clients. Second, this is a total white wash, a total "cop out" by the Oregon Bar.
The Bar is totally corrupt in Oregon. It is controlled by the big law firms and run to benefit the rich special interests they represent. Like the court system in this state, corruption breeds more corruption. The courts bend over backwards (the judges often tying themselves into logical knots) to benefit the rich, the powerful and privileged over the general public.
There is no justice in this state. And it is high time that Oregonians demanded the Bar either enforce the rules or be disbanded. The public demanded the ultimate remedy in California because of similar abuses. The integrated Bar in California was abolished and dismantled over the protests of big firm lawyers. Otherwise, the citizens of this state will have to live like slaves under a system that benefits only the elite.
I think Steve Duin is just another bitter liberal. If the city refuses to make its case, then dismiss the case. It's all inuendo, no substance.
Perhaps he knows more than you do? Perhaps he is upset about white washing by the Bar. Note his remarks about dead lawyers. 'Nuff said by me.
Oregon Ping
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I've lived here for 15 years and I know it!
Nam Vet
Time to bump this again and link it with the other thread.
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