OWLS Celebrated the Recipients of the 21st Roberts and Deiz Awards March 8, 2013.

The Honorable Jean Kerr Maurer, Multnomah County Circuit Court, is the 21st recipient of the Justice Betty Roberts Award.

Julia Markley, Partner, Perkins Coie LLP, Portland, is the 21st recipient of the Judge Mercedes Deiz Award

Title Sponsor

Paulson Coletti Trial Attorneys PC

Platinum Sponsors

Davis Wright Tremaine LLP
Perkins Coie LLP
Markowitz Herbold Glade & Mehlhaf PC
Miller Nash LLP
Stoel Rives LLP
Schwabe Williamson & Wyatt

Gold Sponsors

Ball Janik LLP
Barran Liebman
Bodyfelt Mount
Cosgrave Vergeer Kester
Garvey Schubert Barer
Greene & Markley PC
Lane Powell
Tomasi Salyer Baroway
Tonkon Torp LLP
Williams Love O’Leary & Powers PC

Silver Sponsors

The Women Lawyers of Buckley Law
Gaydos Churnside & Balthrop
Kranovich & Lucero

The 2014 Roberts-Deiz Awards Dinner is Friday, March 14, 2014, at The Nines Hotel in Portland.

Contact Linda Tomassi, executive director, to be a dinner sponsor.

OWLS invites nominations for the 22nd Justice Betty Roberts and Judge Mercedes Deiz Awards.

The awards recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of individuals in promoting women and minorities in the legal profession and community in Oregon. The recipients will be honored at the annual awards dinner on Friday, March 14, 2014, at the Nines Hotel Ballroom in Portland.

The Justice Betty Roberts Award

The Justice Betty Roberts Award recognizes an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to promoting women in the legal profession and in the community. The recipient of this award is a person who has influenced women to pursue legal careers, opened doors for women attorneys, or advanced opportunities for women within the profession.

Click here for a nomination form.

The Judge Mercedes Deiz Award

The Judge Mercedes Deiz Award recognizes an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to promoting minorities in the legal profession and in the community. The recipient of this award is a person who has influenced minorities to pursue legal careers, opened doors for minority attorneys, or advanced opportunities for minorities within the profession.

Click here for a nomination form.

Nominations must be received by 5 p.m. Friday, November 8, 2013.

Nominations for Roberts-Deiz Awards

Nominations must include the following:

• The appropriate nomination form
• Deiz Award Nomination Form
• Roberts Award Nomination Form
• At least three letters of recommendation; and
• Detailed information about the nominee, explaining how that person fulfills the award’s criteria.

Please send nominations (preferably by email) to Stephanie Corey or by mail to 1190 NW Third Ave., Canby, OR 97013.

The law firm Buchanan Angeli Altschul & Sullivan LLP won the 2011 Workplace Leader Award

Portland law firm Buchanan Angeli Altschul & Sullivan LLP was named the recipient of the 2011 OWLS Workplace Leader Award.

OWLS’ mission is “to transform the practice of law and ensure justice and equality by advancing women and minorities in the legal profession.”

By thinking outside the traditional law firm model, Buchanan Angeli Altschul & Sullivan LLP (BAAS) has structured a firm that provides outstanding legal representation to clients while allowing its attorneys–partners, of counsel and associates–to each maintain the work-life balance that works best for him or her.

BAAS is 50-percent women-owned, with two female partners–Courtney Angeli and Dana Sullivan–and two male partners–Paul Buchanan and Andrew Altschul. While there is a “managing partner,” the partners’ decision-making is accomplished through communication and consensus. Rather than focusing on how much a partner could “bill” annually, the firm is premised on the notion that after meeting a baseline obligation to the firm, each attorney should be able to structure his or her own work-life balance. Thus, each partner is committed to meeting his share of the overhead–which includes expenses, an investment in the firm itself and a commitment that BAAS will be an active corporate citizen–but, beyond that, is free to tailor his or her practice as the partner sees fit. There is no penalty–explicit or implicit–for the partner who may choose to work less than another partner. By controlling its overhead and actively incorporating a focus on individualized practice plans, the partners at BAAS are able to achieve a healthy work-life balance without compromising client representation or the firm’s success.

Recognizing that there are outstanding lawyers in the community who do not want to practice in a traditionally structured firm, BAAS has created a business plan that allows it to tap into that talent pool. BAAS employs four non-partner attorneys: one of counsel attorney and three associates; again, two women and two men. Each is offered total flexibility in their work schedule and all currently work on a reduced-hour schedule, largely from home. Their compensation, when compared on an hour-to-hour basis, is competitive with large law firms, as are the benefits they receive. In addition, each attorney has the flexibility to take on a greater workload throughout the year based on his or her desire to earn or grow professionally. The firm’s priority is not that the non-partners meet a pre-set “billable hour” target but, instead, that each attorney meets the expectations of the clients for whom he or she has agreed to work. Redefining the expectations of a non-partner in this manner allows each to have a successful law practice–one that benefits BAAS–without forcing them to compromise their personal priorities.

The firm’s commitment to professional excellence without sacrificing personal happiness permeates the entire firm. The BAAS staff tells OWLS that they are given a great deal of autonomy in coordinating their schedules because the partners trust them to do so in a way that ensures that the firm’s needs are met.

The beneficiaries of the BAAS approach are not only its members and clients. The firm’s approach also permits each attorney at BAAS to provide pro bono or reduced rate work as he or she sees fit. The attorneys in the firm have provided such services to no fewer than 15 non-profit organizations.

By restructuring the traditional law firm model to focus on revenue rather than “billable hours,” BAAS attorneys are truly able to maintain a healthy work-life balance, contribute meaningfully to the community and provide their clients with outstanding representation. For that reason, OWLS is honored to provide it with the 2011 Workplace Leader Award.

Members of the Bodyfelt Mount firm show off their award

OWLS bestowed its 2007 Workplace Leader Award on two law firms — Farleigh Wada Witt and Bodyfelt Mount. The award recognizes innovative legal employers who actively promote the ideals that are important to OWLS members, including maintaining a healthy work/life balance, acquiring and maintaining a diverse workforce, and maximizing opportunities for women and minorities to succeed in the workplace and advance to positions of influence and leadership.

The awards were accepted by Bodyfelt partner Deanna Wray and Farleigh Witt shareholder Karen Saul at a reception following the OWLS Fall CLE on November 2, 2007. Bodyfelt is located in Portland, and Farleigh Witt has offices in Portland and Sisters.

Both law firms have cultures that result from the conscious choice to favor professional fulfillment over maximizing profits. “Our founders had the philosophy that you can’t be a good trial lawyer if you’re not living a full life,” says Deanna Wray.

Farleigh Wada Witt shareholder Karen Saul accepts the firm’s award from Hon. Darleen Ortega

Both firms have moderate billable hour expectations, openness to flexible hours and part-time work, and transparent management practices that give women a meaningful voice. It is no accident that both firms have managed to retain a proportionately high number of women who are having and raising children, and that these same women have become leaders in their firms.

These two firms have demonstrated that moderate billable hour expectations, openness to flexible hours and part-time work, and transparent management practices not only work but also create an environment where all lawyers of either gender can thrive. Congratulations to both firms!

Workplace Leader Award

The firm of Markowitz, Herbold, Glade & Mehlhaf wins the Workplace Leadership Award, 2006.

In October 2006, Oregon Women Lawyers honored the law firm of Markowitz, Herbold, Glade & Mehlhaf as the recipient of the first-ever OWLS Workplace Leader Award.

The award recognizes a legal employer who is taking innovative measures to maximize opportunities for women and minorities to succeed in the workplace and advance to positions of influence and leadership.

Markowitz, Herbold, Glade & Mehlhaf, a Portland litigation firm, was honored for its outstanding efforts to promote a healthy work/life balance by facilitating and respecting flexible time commitments to the firm, creating real opportunities for part-time lawyers, and committing to generous parental leave for all its employees.

These measures are all too rare in the legal profession, in which women and minorities face numerous barriers that may prevent them from advancing in their careers, such as long hours, unpredictable schedules, and partnership tracks that don’t allow for part-time work. These challenges can be particularly difficult for women, who often bear primary responsibility for child rearing.

Markowitz Herbold’s practice of providing for flexible time commitments is particularly innovative, allowing lawyers to indicate each year how many hours they will commit to the firm. The firm respects that commitment and sets their pay accordingly—and lawyers generally work at the level they committed to work. While a lawyer’s hours commitment will affect his or her pay, it is not a factor in partnership selection. In addition, all the firm’s lawyers and staff (male and female) are eligible for three months’ paid leave following the birth of a child. This is significantly longer than the leave typically offered by legal employers, and it extends to parents of both genders.

OWLS congratulates Markowitz Herbold for its groundbreaking policies. They inspire us as we work to make these innovations the norm, rather than the exception, in the practice of law.