OTLA Trial Lawyer Summer 2021

2 Trial Lawyer • Summer 2021 By TimWilliams OTLA Guardian A s you read this, I will be finishing up my year as president of OTLA. And what a tumultuous year this has been. I think 2020 will forever be known as “The Year of COVID,” and, unfortu- nately, it’s not over yet. With unprece- dented health and safety restrictions, there isn’t an industry that hasn’t been affected. This certainly includes the practice of law and the operation of our proud organization. A world-wide pandemic was nowhere on my mind when I ran for a seat on the executive team knowing I would serve my year as president in four years. I thought I knew what to expect. My law partner and father-in-law, Roy Dwyer, had been president over 40 years ago. I had served on the board since 2005 and during that time worked with 10 differ- ent presidents. Other than the occa- sional crisis at the Legislature, they all seemed to serve without much turmoil. I looked forward to (in-person) board meetings, the Snow Ball and various CLEs. I was excited for our annual con- vention at Sunriver where I could hang out with my family, play in the basketball tournament, golf, visit with old friends, make new friends, enjoy watching my kids have a blast, make another appear- ance at the talent show and have an all-out good time. Was I wrong. The challenge of change Rather than enjoy the friendship and camaraderie that serving in leadership offers, I’ve felt — like most — much as though I’m stuck on an island. Masks. Distancing. Work from home. Zoom meetings. I saw it as different and chal- lenging at first, but the novelty wore off after a couple weeks or so. After that, it was a real bummer for me and, I’m guess- ing, for many of you. Many of my OTLA friends and their clients suffered from the lack of progress in their cases. No court. No trials. No depositions. No in-person client meet- ings. All this dealt a crushing blow for nearly every attorney I know. I’ve cer- tainly experienced the ill effects. Coupled with that, a downturn in our practices equated to a downturn in fi- nances for OTLA. Gone was much of our ability to fund the year through our in-person convention. Several of our an- nual sponsors had to pull out, as they too were hurting. Our Guardians program — which funds a third of our operating budget and all of OTLA’s political action committee, to elect legislators who believe in access to justice — took a hit as many were preparing for the worst and putting a freeze on their discretionary spending. We couldn’t hold our annual Snow Ball, another fundraiser for the organization. The good news — the OTLA staff kept working and found places to cut costs, saving the organization money. Settling in On top of all this, like you, I had my own struggles that ran deeper than just my position within OTLA. Up until March 2020, my firm, headquartered in Bend, operated fairly traditionally. We showed up to our office spaces to do our work. We held depositions in person. Mediations in person. Client meetings in person. The change to remote work was hard on us all — particularly my staff. Working at home was a new expe- rience for most, and many did not find the transition to be an easy one. Most of you have first-hand knowl- edge of the adjustments that families made. Generally, that meant two adults working from home. (Who gets the bedroom? Who gets the kitchen?) And like other families with children, we were forced to find time, space and equipment for our kids to attend school from home. New pressures and stresses made for new challenges. Of course, as all of this was going on, we had other struggles to overcome within OTLA. Five new board members have experienced Zoom-only board meetings. I may go down as the only OTLA president to have never held an in-person board meeting. We transi- tioned to a Zoom convention and Zoom CLEs. We coordinated the pro bono fire loss project — mostly remotely. We lost not one, but two board members — Marcia Alvey and Christine Moore — to President’s Message Tim Williams