30 Trial Lawyer • Spring 2022 By David Linthorst OTLA Guardian The day starts long before sunrise. I throw my pack into a Sheriff’s Office truck and drive a couple of hours to a temporary Search and Rescue (SAR) command center in a remote area of Douglas County. It is May, clear and sunny. The snow drifts are still thick in the shadows of the trees. It is day 17 of the search for a 70 year old man who had planned to hike a couple of miles to go fishing and then disappeared. Our team has been called in to search the roughest terrain on the most remote sections of the map. Our assignment requires us to penetrate deep into the wilderness.When the ATVs can’t go any farther, we shoulder our heavy packs and start walking. There are no trails. In some places, we are turned around by impassably thick David Linthorst vegetation. We work our way through burned forests where blackened, dead trees are falling, the “widow makers” left by a forest f i re. We bushwhack through thick undergrowth, drop down into a verdant green ravine and cross a deep, clear creek. We climb the steep canyon wall, gripping exposed roots and sliding in loose rock and mud. When we take a break to eat lunch I think, there is no way a 70-year-old man has moved through this terrain for over two weeks without supplies. I then wonder what it is going to take for me, a well supplied 43-yearold, to make it to the end of this mission. Serving others I found SAR after years of balancing a family, a stressful career and a sense of duty to serve my community. I was taught that service to others is the highest calling. Volunteering has given me some of the most rewarding experiences of my life. OTLA members, who choose to make a career of advocating for plaintiffs, obviously share this value and commitment. Like many attorneys, I was serving on boards, in bar sections and as a pro bono attorney. I found some of these opportunities rewarding. Coaching high school mock SEARCH AND REScue The rescuee and a member of the SAR team wait for the helicopter to take everyone to safety. trial is energizing and gratifying. But I was also getting bogged down with obligations and meetings. I left many meetings feeling I wasn’t contributing much and wasn’t really needed. Moreover, as a spouse and a father of three sons, time was a scarce commodity. If I was going to be away from my family, I wanted to be contributing. I started looking for opportunities to serve that drew upon my skills, held my
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