OTLA Trial Lawyer Fall 2020

4 Trial Lawyer • Fall 2020 By Hon. Nan Waller Multnomah County Circuit Court I n 2002, soon after I was appointed to the bench, there was a sizeable earth- quake that caused visible cracks in the foundation of the Multnomah County courthouse. Judge Ellis, then the presid- ing judge, was interviewed by TV news and discussed the fragility of the court- house. He stated an earthquake of any greater magnitude could cause the court- house to crumble, leading to significant loss of life. My then 10-year-old son, Sam, saw the interview and worriedly asked me if that was the courthouse I was moving to. I tried to comfort him, telling him I would be alright, he didn’t need to worry. Sam continued to question me but clearly wasn’t convinced by my efforts to reassure him. After a while, he came back to me again and questioned me about the wisdom of moving into a courthouse he had just heard was likely to pancake in an earthquake, killing ev- eryone in the building. Again, he left dissatisfied with my efforts to reassure him. When he came back a third time, he changed tactics and asked solemnly whether there was “somebody we can sue?” Fortunately, through the collective effort of the Oregon Judicial Depart- ment, the County, the Bar and the Leg- islature, the major barrier to a new View From The Bench Hon. Nan Waller A courthouse for the 21st century building, cost, was overcome when leg- islation was passed allowing a state con- tribution to counties building/remodel- ing courthouses. Our new 17-story, 380,000 square foot courthouse at SW 1 st Avenue and SW Madison Street in downtown Portland is designed to retain functionality after a Cascadia subduction zone seismic event. Eighteen years after my first efforts to reassure my son, I can finally honestly say to Sam, on the eve of our move into our new courthouse, tak- ing the bench every day will now in fact be safe. We moved into the new courthouse on October 5, but without the planned parade and fanfare, and without the chance to do the grand thank you and good-bye to the old courthouse that it deserves. Although COVID-19 will re- quire adjustments that we never antici- pated when the new courthouse was designed, I expect our community’s ap- preciation of the new building will be undiminished. I want to give special kudos to Barb Marcille, our court’s trial court adminis- trator, who was a tremendous partner when I was presiding judge as we worked on design and funding for the new court- house. Marcille, with the support and assistance of Presiding Judge Steve Bush- ong, has put thousands of added hours into the final planning for the furnishing, use and move into our new courthouse. The design of the new building was a collaborative effort, bringing together the perspectives of judges, lawyers, the community and other courthouse users, along with architects and county officials. The impetus for building the new court- house was its seismic vulnerability, how- ever, all agreed it was important to take advantage of the opportunity to incor- porate the value our community places on our justice system and to create a building that meets the needs of judges, the public and the bar. We saw this as a chance to address barriers to access to justice both in terms of the building itself and our operations. All of these consid- erations led to the vision statement de- veloped by stakeholders to the project — architects, the county, builders, the bar, the court and others: The newMultnomah County Cen- tral Courthouse will enhance con- fidence in the justice system, inspire civic engagement and urban vitality and provide a restorative human experience within a resilient and responsible community landmark. The vision statement guided the work of the project team to design a building that embraces the principles of proce- dural justice, enhances public confidence in the justice system and meets the needs of our diverse community. To that end, the design team met with multiple focus groups — persons with disabilities, victims, lawyers, elders and groups