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OUS cuts special deal for Frohnmayer and Rudnick

3/29/2013: OUS’s Oregon Administrative Rule 580 exempts a few things from the normal transparent competitive bidding process for state procurement:

(k) Goods or services related to intercollegiate athletic programs.
(L) Cadavers or cadaveric organs.

(u) Contracts for professional or expert witnesses or consultants to provide services or testimony relating to existing or potential litigation or legal matters in which an Institution is or may become interested.

At its April 5 meeting the board is going to amend that a little, adding all legal services to the list, so that UO can hire firms like Rudnick and Frohnmayer’s HLGR in secret, and without competitive bids:

I’ve written before about Dave Frohnmayer’s success at using his state funded sabbatical to restart his legal career at Harrang, Long, Gary and Rudnick. (Full disclosure: Frohnmayer emailed me back in January, taking umbrage with some of my statements about the golden parachute deal he negotiated with Pernsteiner while simultaneously trying convince the faculty and staff to take furloughs.) HLGR then used Frohnmayer’s UO connections as a hook to get legal work from UO and OUS, while simultaneously promising there was no conflict of interest – thought they neglected to note Frohnmayer was still on the UO payroll. It took a petition to the AG and the help of Phil Barhart’s office to get UO to fork over the proposals. I love that “and at your discretion” part of the HLGR proposal:

Meanwhile Randy Geller – in charge of hiring extra lawyers for UO – wrote a brief for HLGR, supporting their claim in a public records case, arguing the state should have to pay the firm twice the regular rate, or $866K total. Nigel Jaquiss has the story here, my take is here. What’s Frohnmayer’s cut? Not sure, but he bills at $550 an hour, so figure a couple hundred large:


8 Comments

  1. Roger 03/30/2013

    Typical Bill Harbaugh distortions. You assert that this is a “special deal for Frohnmayer and Rudnick,” when in fact the rule change has nothing to do with Frohnmayer or Rudnick or HLGR. It may affect HLGR in the future–or it may not–but to characterize OUS’s rule as a “special” deal “for” them is plainly dishonest.

  2. uomatters 03/30/2013

    Thanks for your thoughts on this.

    I’ve added a few more documents and links to show a bit more about the extent of the special relationship between UO and its General Counsel Randy Geller, HLGR, and Frohnmayer and Rudnick.

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  4. Roger 03/31/2013

    You are wrong about literally everything you wrote in this post. The problem is that you know nothing about the law, and you are a fool, so you don’t actually realize when you’ve said something stupid, and it is impossible to convince you of that fact.

    The other problem, Bill, is that you are also a selfish and dishonest person, so you reflexively and unjustly attribute selfishness, dishonesty, and other bad motives to people. As a consequence, you slander and denigrate people who are better human beings than you.

  5. uomatters 03/31/2013

    Thanks “Roger”. Frohnmayer sure has some interesting friends.

  6. downhillfast 03/31/2013

    I always doubt the one who claims that the other is wrong about “literally everything.”

    Minus one point for “Roger.”

  7. bojack 03/31/2013

    When a turd like “Roger” floats to the surface and tells you you’re a bad person, you know you got the gist of it right. “His” IP address would probably be comical.

  8. Keith Appleby 04/01/2013

    My legal case (for ORICO-Racketeering, et. al.) against the UO is cited in one of Geller’s briefs. Apparently, UO had wanted to use HLGR, but instead was forced to use Hershner Hunter instead. My case against the UO was partially settled last year. But, there are still a few loose ends. I was informed about two weeks ago that HLGR was taking over from Hershner Hunter (despite Hershner Hunter representing UO for over a year and a half) on the case.

    I’m intentionally not trying to “spin” anything here. Those are simply the facts.

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