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Has President Schill found a replacement for Doug Park?

I don’t know.  Word is that there will be multiple finalists, visiting campus soon, application materials posted by the end of next week. Sounds good.

The job is no longer listed on the active administrative listing here, and the ad itself is now watermarked as an archive. But there’s been no announcement of finalists or public dissemination of application letters. The rudimentary General Counsel’s page still lists Doug Park as Interim GG.

Meanwhile there is an opening for an assistant for Public Records Officer Lisa Thornton, here. UO Employees only – definitely wouldn’t want to take a chance on getting someone with new ideas into that office. Speaking of which, they’ve got a pretty extensive backlog of unfilled requests.

Request Date Title Requester Status
07/23/2015 Student Fees Kimbrell, Jacob Requesting/Reviewing Records
07/22/2015 Contract Ahlen, John Requesting/Reviewing Records
07/20/2015 Athletic Contracts Rhoden, Jaleesa Records Provided
07/16/2015 Software Anderson, Angelina Requesting/Reviewing Records
07/16/2015 UOPD Boone, Mario No Responsive Records
07/16/2015 Compliance Correspondence Mattioli, Kami Requesting/Reviewing Records
07/15/2015 Directory Howe, Kevin Requesting/Reviewing Records
07/14/2015 Donations Jacoby, Kenny Requesting/Reviewing Records
07/14/2015 Contract Harbaugh, William Requesting/Reviewing Records
07/13/2015 Solar Energy Projects Wilker, Steven Requesting/Reviewing Records
07/13/2015 Reviews Paulson, Lauren Awaiting Payment
07/09/2015 Brand Contracts Axon, Rachel Requesting/Reviewing Records
07/07/2015 President Records Harbaugh, William Requesting/Reviewing Records
07/07/2015 University Expenditures Hill, Toni Requesting/Reviewing Records
07/07/2015 Correspondence Martin, Nick Records Exempt From Disclosure
07/06/2015 Coach Contract Baumbach, Jim Records Provided
07/02/2015 NCAA Violations Greif, Andrew Requesting/Reviewing Records
07/02/2015 Purchase Contract Willis, Amy Requesting/Reviewing Records
07/02/2015 UO Foundation Harbaugh, William No Responsive Records
07/01/2015 Coach Contracts Hawthorne, Jonathan Records Provided
07/01/2015 Coach Contracts Shifflett, Shane Records Provided
07/01/2015 Student Directory Asari, David Requesting/Reviewing Records
06/30/2015 Coach Contracts Goldstick, Robert Records Provided
06/30/2015 BANNER Statements Harbaugh, Bill No Responsive Records
06/30/2015 Earthquake Certifications McGraw, Noah No Responsive Records
06/29/2015 RFP Tritsch, Geoffrey Requesting/Reviewing Records
06/25/2015 Football Contracts Berkowitz, Steve Records Provided
06/23/2015 UOPD Correspondence Harbaugh, Bill Requesting/Reviewing Records
06/22/2015 Mirror Epstein Johnson, Mark Requesting/Reviewing Records
06/19/2015 Compliance Emails Epstein, David Requesting/Reviewing Records
06/19/2015 BANNER Reports Harbaugh, Bill Records Provided
06/18/2015 Animals In Research Agundez, Juan Awaiting Payment
06/18/2015 Parking Revenue and Citation Totals Campuzano, Eder Records Provided
06/15/2015 Sightlines Study Dietz, Diane Requesting/Reviewing Records
06/15/2015 Employment Contracts & Salary Cohen, Kevin Records Provided
06/15/2015 2021 IAAF World Championship Wihtol, Christian Awaiting Payment
06/10/2015 Economics Dept. Salaries Costello, Brandon Records Provided
06/10/2015 RFP Responses – Course Scheduler Conner, Brett No Responsive Records
06/10/2015 Softball Coach Contract Greif, Andrew Records Provided
06/10/2015 Softball Coach Contract Hawthorne, Jonathan Records Provided

6/1/2015 update: New Pres Mike Schill takes UO’s General Counsel bull by the horns

Explanation for new VPGC position here, ad here, review begins June 26.

General Statement of Duties

The Vice President and General Counsel to the University (VPGC) is the chief legal officer for the University of Oregon, a senior advisor to the President of the University (President), and an officer of the university. The VPGC will be responsible for managing the university’s legal affairs, overseeing the office’s provision of legal services to the university (including the provision of any outside legal services retained on behalf of the university), and supervising the Office of the General Counsel, which includes other attorneys and support staff. In addition, the VPGC will oversee the University’s Office of Public Records and the University’s Records Management Services, including supervision of employees in those two functions. As a member of the president’s senior leadership team, the VPGC will work closely with the president and other executive officers on a wide array of matters of legal import to the institution. In addition, the VPGC will work closely with university units, programs (e.g. student government), and employees. …

While Lariviere had taken responsibility for public records away from Melinda Grier and Doug Park in the GC’s office because of conflict of interest concerns coming out of the Bellotti fiasco, in practice that independence was a sham. So perhaps it’s best to acknowledge that the conflict exists and set up procedures to deal with it.

5/27/2015 update:

Schill is going to totally reorganize the General Counsel’s office and restart the search for a “VP for Legal Affairs” to take charge of UO’s troubled legal matters. This is the best UO news I’ve heard in long time, and we all hope it will be the first in a series of efforts to reform Johnson Hall. It’s certainly a great start to an improved relationship with the faculty.

Meanwhile UO’s website seems to think Randy Geller is still in charge. (Link finally removed today, 11 months after Geller was resigned.)

5/218/2015: General Counsel search committee soliciting anonymous comments

We’ve now got the full slate of 5 candidates: Thomas Dorer (University of Hartford), Doug Park (UO), Keith Kutler (OR-DOJ), Alison Kean (Portland Metro), and Sharyl Kammerzell (WSU).

Candidate info is below the break. The search committee is now soliciting comments about the candidates, due by Tuesday, at https://president.uoregon.edu/content/general-counsel-search-information. I was surprised to see that these are anonymous – in fact the form doesn’t even have a place to add your name.

5/9/2015: Candidate #5: Sharyl Kammerzell

Screen Shot 2015-05-09 at 11.27.41 AM

Interview schedule (starts May 12), resume and cover letter:

Screen Shot 2015-05-09 at 11.42.26 AM

A very important academic freedom case came out of events at WSU, Demers v. Austin. The Ninth Circuit decision was part of the series of events that led former UO Pres Gottfredson and the General Counsel’s office to abandon their efforts to clamp down on academic freedom at UO. The AAUP has a good summary of the case here. No reason to see anything bad about the fact she was working at WSU during the trial, but I hope someone will ask Ms Kammerzell what she thought of the case and the decision. Might be interesting.

5/6/2015: Candidate #4: Alison Kean

Screen Shot 2015-05-06 at 1.20.27 PM

Full interview schedule, starts May 11th. Resume and cover letter here:

[Currently] General Counsel for Metro regional government, serving 25 cities and 3
counties, 1.5 million citizens, over 800 employees; responsible for agency’s legal affairs and
overseeing the provision of all legal services to all departments and commissions of the regional
government; represent agency in all litigation; full charge and control of all legal business of all
departments and commissions of agency; review and approve all written contracts, ordinances,
resolutions, executive orders, bonds, and all legally binding instruments of agency; appointed by
Metro Council President – one of two appointed agency positions. …

As the agency’s chief legal officer, I have made legal ethics training an agency priority. I have developed and implemented a program that instructs every Metro executive, manager, elected official, and employee of their duties under the Oregon Ethics Act. I am a recognized leader and instructor statewide on public officials’ ethical duties, and I regularly speak to and advise public officials and attorneys throughout the state on public sector ethics. With input from senior management I direct the agency’s public records disclosures with an emphasis on transparency, while protecting the agency’s rights to confidentiality when legal exemptions clearly apply. …

5/4/2015: GC finalist #3 Keith Kutler googles it in:

Screen Shot 2015-05-04 at 8.01.10 PM

Interview starts May 6th, schedule here, cover letter and resume here. I’ve read a lot of job applications over the years – but never one telling the search committee to Google him if they really care enough to learn about his work:

Screen Shot 2015-05-04 at 8.09.30 PM

Hint to graduating seniors: don’t do this. Next!

4/30/2015 update: Finalist #2: Doug Park for General Counsel?

Oh well, there goes the search committee’s credibility. Just kidding, I suppose they had to put him on the list. Finalist #2 is current acting GC Doug Park:

Screen Shot 2015-04-30 at 11.03.12 PM

Park’s interview schedule is here (May 4), resume and cover letter here. It’s mostly a warning to our new president about the disasters that will befall UO in the absence of  Doug Park’s experienced guidance and leadership. Read the whole thing, I had to stop after this:

Dear Search Committee:

The University of Oregon’s mission is to help develop the next generation of leaders, teachers, critical thinkers and discoverers. I am delighted and humbled by the possibility of contributing to that mission as UO’s General Counsel. I am also undaunted by that prospect, even though I know it is a difficult and sometimes heartbreaking job. I am delighted because the UO is on the cusp of being able to fulfill its mission at unprecedented levels, and it would be a high honor to serve as its General Counsel during this transformational time. I am humbled because this is a leadership position charged with helping guide UO through many of its most complex challenges, where there is no margin for error. I am undaunted by these challenges because I love this school and believe that at this unique time in UO’s history, I am the most qualified person to lead the General Counsel’s Office. …

An evolving role for university general counsels across the country is assisting with serious misconduct and crisis situations. Not all crises can be avoided. But they can be successfully weathered with a team of experienced leaders. Since coming to UO in 2007, I have managed or assisted with many of UO’s most challenging cases, ranging from a situation where a student fired over 30 bullets into one of our housing units, to a state and federal investigation into grant mismanagement in our largest research institute, to high-profile sex assault allegations. Managing these types of cases involves collaboration between multiple UO departments and external constituents, tenacity, sensitivity and strategic decision making at every turn. In sum, if a university’s general counsel is not experienced with handling crisis situations from both a legal and practical perspective, the university will suffer.

I don’t see anything about Park’s role in hiding the Bellotti public records in the scandal that got Melinda Grier fired, or his complaint that my (failed) efforts to get GC attorneys to put their resumes on the GC website constituted sexual harassment, or his role in the countersuit against the student survivor of the alleged basketball gang rape, or his work with Shelley Kerr to grab her counseling records, or in the Librarygate investigation that got James Fox fired, or any of the other disasters that come out of our GC’s office like shit from a diseased cow. Maybe Park explains all that in the redacted part?

Screen Shot 2015-04-30 at 11.23.14 PM

4/28/2015 update: From AroundTheOops. Candidate info is here. This looks like a far more credible search than the one Margie Paris (Law) ran after Melinda Grier was fired by Lariviere over the Mike Bellotti fiasco, and which led to the hiring of Randy Geller, who was “resigned” by Gottfredson in the midst of the alleged basketball gang rape fiasco, and then replaced with Doug Park as acting GC.

Candidate #1 is Thomas Dorer, currently at the University of Hartford:

Screen Shot 2015-04-28 at 10.18.49 AM

Resume and cover letter here. Acting GC Doug Park is not on Dorer’s official interview schedule, which probably means Park is a finalist too. Nor are any of UO’s HLGR hired guns, such as noted big-tobacco attorneys Bill Gary and Sharon Rudnick. Presumably they’ll meet up Saturday.

2/5/2015 update: I’ll go out on a limb and guess that Doug Park is no longer a serious contender for the permanent GC job. So “Apply by Feb 6 for full consideration”.

1/21/2015: The search started in December. Coltrane finally posts General Counsel search info.

A week after the public records request below, Interim President Cotrane has finally posted information about the search to replace Interim General Counsel Doug Park. It’s good to hear that UO is at least following the affirmative action rules this time:

General Counsel Search Information

The University of Oregon is seeking to hire a General Counsel to the University. Doug Park is serving as interim General Counsel while a permanent replacement is sought.

The General Counsel to the University (GC) is the chief legal officer for the University of Oregon. The GC is responsible for managing the university’s legal affairs and overseeing the office’s provision of legal services to the university and the UO Board of Trustees. The General Counsel works closely with other executive officers, university units, and student government, and is authorized to accept legal process on behalf of the university. The General Counsel supervises the office budget and staff, including five other attorneys.

The complete position description can be found here.

President Scott Coltrane has appointed a search committee after seeking nominations from the university senate president and other campus stakeholders. The committee has been approved by Affirmative Action and Unclassified Personnel Services.

The committee includes:

Priscilla Southwell, Department head and Professor of Political Science
Meg Reeves, General Counsel at Oregon State University
Brad Shelton, Interim Vice President for Research and Innovation
David Schuman, Professor of Law
Angela Wilhelms, Secretary of the University

As the search progresses, additional information will be provided on this webpage.

Estimated Search Timeline

December 1–19, 2014
Review/revise position description, write announcement and advertise, seek nominations and appoint search committee

December 19, 2014
Office of the President sends documents to the Office of Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity (AAEO) for approval

January 11 and 18, 2015
Place advertisements

February 6, 2015: Closing Deadline
Search committee will begin review of files; open until suitable candidate is identified

March 2015
Invite finalists to campus for interviews

April 2015
Candidate arrives on campus

But who’s really in charge? Google “General Counsel University of Oregon” and you’ll see it’s still Randy Geller:

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Weird. Maybe they’ll take that link down someday. It only took them a few hours to take down the page Geller posted appointing Melinda Grier as UO’s “General Counsel Emeritus”, after the Oregonian’s Steve Duin started asking questions.

I thought Gottfredson fired graciously accepted Geller’s request to retire and spend more time with his family back in April, the day after UO got back the EPD police report on the basketball rape allegations. Purely coincidental, I’m sure.

Geller now works for Harrang, Long, Gary and Rudnick, the same law firm he gave the university’s legal business to back in 2011, after President Larviere fired UO GC Melinda Grier over a football scandal. Small world.

1/20/2015 update: Pres Coltrane starts search to replace Doug Park with real General Counsel

At last Wednesday’s Senate meeting Pres Coltrane said the membership of this search committee was posted online. I can’t find it, and Dave Hubin’s PR office doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to release it:

Subject: public records request, General Counsel hiring committee
Date: January 14, 2015 at 12:57:14 PM PST
Cc: [email protected]
To: Lisa Thornton <[email protected]>

Dear Ms Thornton –

This is a public records request for a list of the members of the hiring committee for a new UO General Counsel.

I ask for a fee waiver on the basis of public interest.

Most universities post detailed information about the GC’s office, their attorneys, who to see about what legal matters, etc. Not UO – in fact Interim GC Doug Park thinks it’s harassment to ask for copies of the resumes of UO attorneys.

1/14/2015 update: Is this a legit open search, or is the fix in to give Geller’s pal and interim GC Doug Park the job? JH has a long history of cronyism, with the hiring of Chuck Triplett being just one recent example. Here’s the 2010 committee that hired Melinda Grier’s assistant Randy Geller to replace her, after Lariviere fired her over the Belotti fiasco:

Margie Paris, chair, dean of the school of law
Thomas Herrmann, UO law ’88, partner at Gleaves Swearingen Potter & Scott LLP
David Leith, associate attorney general, Oregon Department of Justice
Jamie Moffitt, executive senior associate athletic director for finance and administration
Michael Redding, vice president for university relations
Paul Shang, assistant vice president for student affairs and dean of students
Catherine Susman, director of purchasing and contract services

Strange, but I can’t find the names of the new hiring committee anywhere. So I’ve made a public records request.

1/8/2015:

Apply by Feb 6 for full consideration. The ad went up this morning, here. No word yet on who’s on the search committee, but given that Margie Paris (Law) chaired the committee that led the failed external search that resulted in the unfortunate promotion of Melinda Grier’s assistant Randy Geller, I assume she’s out.

Title:  General Counsel to the University
Department:  President’s Office
FTE:  1.0 (full-time)
Appointment Type:  Officer of Administration
Reports to:  UO President
Salary range:  $200,000 to $250,000 annually, plus an excellent benefits package
Duration:  12 months, renewable annually
Closing Date:  Search will remain open until filled; application review begins February 6, 2015
Start Date:  April 20, 2015 or as soon as possible thereafter

General Statement of Duties

The General Counsel to the University (GC) is the chief legal officer for the University of Oregon. The GC is responsible for managing the university’s legal affairs and overseeing the office’s provision of legal services to the university and the UO Board of Trustees. The General Counsel works closely with other executive officers, university units, and student government, and is authorized to accept legal process on behalf of the university. The General Counsel supervises the office budget and staff, including five other attorneys.

The General Counsel is one of four officers of the university as outlined in the UO’s bylaws. Thus, the position has a dual reporting requirement to the university president and the Board of Trustees, and serves as a member of the president’s executive leadership team. The GC participates in all meetings of the Board of Trustees or its committees, and works closely with the University Secretary on issues relating to public meetings, Board actions and resolutions, and UO policies.

Description of Duties

The General Counsel works in a variety of practice areas, including labor and employment, business matters, civil rights, contract review, litigation, environmental issues, copyright, information technology, intellectual property, technology transfer, property acquisitions, design and construction transactions, research transactions, student and faculty issues, tax, risk management, compliance, government ethics rules, and constitutional law. The university is a complex and diverse institution that generates a wide range of legal issues. Some of these are common to all large institutions; others (such as shared governance, freedom of speech, academic freedom, sponsored research, student rights, campus safety, the ADA, Title IX, Development, and Athletics) are unique to the environment of a large public university.

As the chief legal officer for the university, the General Counsel is responsible for managing the legal affairs of the university and overseeing the office’s provision of legal services across the entire spectrum of university life.

The GC advises the university’s senior leadership team, including the president, UO Board of Trustees, Senior Vice President and Provost, Vice President for Finance and Administration/CFO, and others, on the legal implications of strategy, business, and policy decisions.

The GC retains and supervises outside counsel when prudent. The GC works closely with the University Secretary on all matters with legal implications that come before the board.

This position supervises the office staff including five attorneys, one executive assistant/operations manager, and one legal assistant (all officers of administration).

Required Qualifications

  • Possess a law degree from an accredited law school.
  • Be a member of, or qualified for admission to, the Oregon State Bar.
  • Have at least fifteen years of recent law practice experience. Substantial experience managing, directing, and coordinating the workload and work product of other attorneys, including outside counsel, and the Office of General Counsel.
  • Demonstrated impeccable analytical, interpersonal, and written and oral communication skills, as well as high ethical standards, mature judgment, and the capacity to foster constructive outcomes in a complex environment involving an array of distinct stakeholders from diverse backgrounds.
  • Demonstrated competence and confidence to operate with credibility at the senior executive level; maintaining objectivity while promoting appropriate outcomes, managing multiple stakeholder agendas, and upholding excellent client service standards.
  • Possess superior intellect, flexibility, creativity, and the aptitude to be a true “generalist.”
  • Notable experience demonstrating equity and inclusion to enable success for people from all walks of life while sharing common, fundamental values grounded in justice, civility, and respect while looking to diversity as a source of enrichment and strength.

n

35 Comments

  1. superior intellect? 01/08/2015

    Please can I see a list of comparators? Internal and external breakouts would be nice, too. Thanks, Scott.

    You know something’s broken when the job add sounds more like a new position than a replacement. Surely these are new standards? “high ethical standards, mature judgment, and the capacity to foster constructive outcomes”

  2. Licensed in Oregon 01/08/2015

    This is a situation where your university should use a professional search firm. They should also put the names of the search committee in the job ad – including the relevant trustees.

    Given this office’s history serious applicants will worry that there is a favored internal candidate. The short time frame adds to this worry. These steps would show that UO and the Board are serious about making the best possible hire, and would attract a much better pool.

  3. Trickortreat 02/05/2015

    Don’t fool yourself with hiring a professional search firm. JH will hire the person they want despite any recommendation from an outside firm.

  4. Canaduck 04/28/2015

    That is a lot of bureaucrats to meet and greet in a day.

    At least this list finally shows who is employed in the GC’s office.

  5. Licensed in Oregon 04/28/2015

    Looks quite credible. He made the finalist lists at New Mexico and Madison in 2013.

    But why would UO redact the name of the person he sent his application file to?

  6. SaveUofO 04/28/2015

    Please just give Doug Park a pat on the head along with a lollipop and send him somewhere else. Hopefully the candidate who ultimately gets the position will see how broken GC is and fix it.

  7. omg 04/28/2015

    Maybe a lawyer as president can recognize lack of appropriate counsel in the legal office?

  8. Andy Stahl 04/28/2015

    Tom looks well suited to meet the UO Athletic Department’s needs. While at WVU, he cut a sweetheart deal with the men’s basketball coach, letting him avoid paying $1.0 million of a $2.5 million buy-out so the WVU coach could become a Michigan Wolverine.

  9. just different 04/28/2015

    Holy cow, good catch, Andy.

    “After very productive discussions with Bob Fitzsimmons, Coach Beilein’s attorney, we are pleased to have finalized the details related to Coach Beilein’s departure from the university,” Tom Dorer, West Virginia’s general counsel, said Thursday. “Obviously
    from the fact we reached agreement, both parties wanted to move on and amicably resolve any remaining issues.”

    So…if he’s willing to “productively” and “amicably” hand over $1M of university cash to get a turncoat coach off the hook, he’ll roll right over during collective bargaining. Right?

  10. just different 05/01/2015

    The mystery redaction for me is the footnote to this:

    I have now rebuilt the Office to a team of dedicated and talented attorneys that I am humbled to lead. They are not merely among the finest attorneys I have ever worked with; they are also wonderful people who believe in the importance of public universities.1

    • anonec 05/01/2015

      The footnote says “Just kidding.”.

  11. Keith Appleby 05/01/2015

    I don’t see anything about Park’s role in hiding the Bellotti public records in the scandal that got Melinda Grier fired, or his complaint that my (failed) efforts to get GC attorneys to put their resumes on the GC website constituted sexual harassment, or his role in the countersuit against the student survivor of the alleged basketball gang rape, or his work with Shelley Kerr to grab her counseling records, or in the Librarygate investigation that got James Fox fired, or any of the other disasters that come out of our GC’s office like shit from a diseased cow.”

    And, Park was individually named as a defendant for engaging in racketeering (the University later settled out of court):

    http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/9/prweb8783095.htm

    Then, in a related case, Park was also personally found responsible for violating state labor law (PECBA) in ERB proceedings.

    You always seem to forget those ;-)

  12. SaveUofO 05/03/2015

    Hiring Doug Park as GC would be a disaster. Just gut JH and start all over.

  13. Why it's going to be Doug Park 05/03/2015

    a) He’s not the smartest dog in the pound, but he’s loyal and the BOT doesn’t need some new lawyer asking inconvenient questions.

    b) He’s married to Prof Beth Stormschak of the Prevention Science Institute, and she’s bringing in the grant bucks for UO.

    c) Sorry, there aren’t any other reasons.

    • just different 05/03/2015

      c) When was the last time in JH the inside candidate didn’t get the job?

  14. just different 05/04/2015

    The half-assed cover letter isn’t all there is to love about this guy. I took him up on his Oregonian search-box challenge:

    Kutler represented the state in the PERS COLA dispute.
    Kutler more-or-less gave Bill Gary carte blanche in writing a big 2013 tax deal for HLGR client Nike.

    No wonder he phoned it in. He knows the politics at UO (“I speak the language, if you will”) and figures he’s the front-runner. Key quote from his cover letter:

    The success I have had in keeping [my clients] from unwanted media attention has resulted from providing sound legal advice and assessments of legal risks while trying to assist clients in meeting their business objectives.

    • Licensed to drive 05/04/2015

      Just what we need – another GC who wants to keep the public from seeing what happens at a public university.

  15. uomatters Post author | 05/04/2015

    I’m not sure that’s the correct interpretation of the Nike deal. Looks to me like Kutler raised plenty of questions, which Kitzhaber ignored. Not hard to look the other way when Uncle Phil is giving you a $250K campaign contribution. Or was that about the $30M in tax money for the track and field championships?

  16. that effing Dog again 05/06/2015

    on Alison Kean – great – she is very good, well reasoned and fair and knows how to apply common sense – does that automatically disqualify her? Of course, she is a colleague of WF Gary so not sure how this blog will treat her :)

    • Andy Stahl 05/06/2015

      Ms. Kean is too modest on her LinkedIn profile. During the gap year (1995) between her departure from Preston Gates & Ellis and her arrival at Metro, Kean worked for the Mark C. Rutzick Law Firm (Mark is also a PG&E alum) representing the timber industry in a range of old-growth forest logging cases. These cases are also the only substantive reported federal court decisions in which she is listed as counsel. She did well, too, winning them.

      I don’t know why Kean omits this law-related employment from both her c.v. and Linkedin profiles, as it is to her credit. The UO law school prides itself on its environmental law program, so seems to me they would appreciate each other.

  17. SaveUofO 05/07/2015

    Some really good candidates sans Doug Park.

  18. just different 05/09/2015

    Even though its jurisdiction is the greater Portland area, it’s called just “Metro” or maybe “Oregon Metro” to distinguish it from other MPOs.

  19. Michael 05/09/2015

    Alison Kean appears to be the best candidate. Very impressive resume.

    • just different 05/11/2015

      Metro has a reputation for being something of a political snake pit. I would have guessed that’s why Kean was looking elsewhere, except that she’s been there for twenty years.

      I wonder whether there are any plans to have Schiller and Kammerzell cross paths while they’re both on campus. It’s strange that he wouldn’t be involved with hiring a new GC. So maybe the right decision will get made after all.

  20. just different 05/09/2015

    Based on the application materials posted here and a little googling, I like Kammerzell. A nice tidbit (easy to miss in her resume) from the WSU press release about her hire:

    Kammerzell also has worked in the Peace Corps in Kpalime, Togo, West Africa, clerked for the Oregon Supreme Court and done legal work on natural resource and Indian issues.

    I think she has the best higher ed cred–especially for a school like UO–and she is the only candidate (aside from Park) without a biglaw background, which I think speaks volumes about her character and her priorities.

    But I’m not doing the hiring. My money, unfortunately, is on Kutler.

    Thanks to UO Matters for staying on top of this extremely influential yet behind-the-scenes matter.

    • anon and on and on 05/11/2015

      You beat me to it. I also like her resume a lot, and the scuttlebutt from friends up there is that she’s a fundamentally decent person. We know of course what organizational involution can do to otherwise decent people, but I really hope she’s the one they’ll pick (my natural cynicism aside).

  21. SaveUofO 05/10/2015

    Doug Park has done enough damage to this institution. We all know by “weather” situations Doug actually means he put his head in the sand and prayed for it to go away. He’s regarded by many to be the poster child of what this institution does not need in terms of legal leadership. Just how many lawsuits are we up to now under Doug Park’s so called leadership? Retain him and you might as well start throwing money into the Millrace.

  22. best guesstimate 05/19/2015

    DP in this role is inevitable. Too many irons in the fire still and those will scare away any candidate worth her salt

    • uomatters Post author | 05/19/2015

      I’ve been repeatedly told by several different sources that it will not be Doug Park. And some of those conversations were before we got a new president who knows something about lawyers, and presumably can attract a competent one.

      • just different 05/19/2015

        Is there any scuttlebutt on exactly how Schill is involved in the GC search? The two searches were run concurrently, and the GC is supposed to be on the job before Schill, but it’s hard to believe that JH would really stick a pricey incoming president with a pricey GC he didn’t like.

        • New Year Cat 05/19/2015

          OMG. Just why is that hard to believe, given everything else that has gone on around here in the last, say, four years? But, we live in hope….

          • just different 05/19/2015

            The list of finalists doesn’t make me think that the BoT (or even JH insiders, Shelton and Wilhelms notwithstanding) are pulling the strings behind the GC search, and I can’t imagine why else it would be desirable to “install” a particular GC without consulting the new president. But maybe that’s just a failure of my imagination.

  23. best guesstimate 05/19/2015

    Perhaps therein lies the reason for the archives scuttlebutt…..history/herstory must be scrubbed clean before any outsiders are hired into the thunderdome.

  24. SaveUofO 05/27/2015

    The ‘capacity to foster constructive outcomes’ automatically disqualifies DP.

  25. just different 07/23/2015

    When was the OPR Assistant position posted? Did Daphne Joubran leave, or are they hiring a third person?

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