A First Female Managing Partner

This fact makes the rise of Jane Brown, Gonzaga Law class of 1995, all that more impressive. In the summer of 2012, the Inland Northwest law firm of Paine Hamblem named Brown as their first ever female managing partner.

Jane Brown first began working at Paine Hamblen as a Legal Assistant in 1990, and continued to work for the firm full-time while attending Gonzaga Law School. After graduation, Brown built a practice in a variety of litigation areas, including construction law, federal and state discrimination claims, and personal injury claims. Now, Brown works mainly in family law cases.

Never Lose Sight of Passion

Brown is modest about her success, though she does credit her role as a legal assistant before attending law school gave her unique perspective and experience that served her well as she built her practice.

In addition to her position at Paine Hamblen, a law firm with nearly 50 attorneys and offices in Spokane, the Tri-Cities, Coeur d’Alene and Priest River, Brown dedicates time to the non-profit Raincoast Conservation, where she serves on the board of directors. “I never lost sight about what I was passionate about,” Brown says. “I’ve learned that whatever you want to do, as long as you do it well, there will always be a role for you.”

Carl Maxey, photo courtesy the Spokane Spokesman-Review, 1997.

In 1946, the young WWII veteran Carl Maxey got off the bus in Spokane and was refused service in the bus station cafeteria. This incident, combined with a “social awareness [that] was born in the outrageously segregated Army,” inspired Maxey to become a lawyer. After attending Gonzaga Law and becoming the first African American to pass the Bar in Eastern Washington. Maxey spent decades making a difference in Spokane and across the nation.

Fighting for a chance

Carl Maxey was born in 1924 in Tacoma, and was adopted by Carl and Carolyn Maxey. By 1930, Maxey was an orphan placed in the Spokane Children’s Home. In 1936, Maxey and Milton Burns, the only other “colored” child at the Home, were kicked out and sent to the only place that would take them, the Juvenile Detention Center. Just a few months later, Jesuit priest Father Cornelius E. Byrne took both boys under his wing at the Sacred Heart Mission in DeSmet, Idaho. Father Byrne eventually arranged for Maxey to attend Gonzaga High School. After high school, Maxey served four years in a military medical battalion.

Taking challenges head-on

After a short stint at the University of Oregon, Maxey began classes at Gonzaga University School of Law in 1948 on a boxing scholarship. Over two years, “King Carl” built a 32-0 bout record and won the NCAA boxing championship, tying as the first NCAA championship ever for Gonzaga. After the Championship, Maxey buckled down academically and graduated with his J.D. in 1951; he was the first African American to pass the Bar in Eastern Washington later that same year. Almost immediately, Maxey took up a case of Eugene Breckenridge, a case that effectively desegregated the hiring of teachers by the Spokane school district.

Ending discrimination in Washington

Through the next several decades, Carl Maxey took on case after case that helped end racial discrimination across the board in Washington state. Cases Maxey took on had a hand in ending redlining (increasing the cost of or denying services on the basis of race), housing discrimination via restrictive covenants, discrimination by social clubs and the discriminatory practices of some local businesses. Maxey took on several high-profile criminal and civil cases during his career, including defending Gonzaga student that was arrested for shouting “Warmonger!” at Spiro Agnew and acting as one of four defense lawyers for the Seattle Seven. The New York Times, in a 1997 story about Maxey, described his work in this way:

Mr. Maxey won such widespread admiration that he became a member of the city’s power elite, serving on a host of civic and corporate boards. He defended prominent white defendants in some of the city’s most celebrated criminal cases, but he also represented many obscure black clients and others without charge. … [Maxey] was named by five Presidents as state chairman for the United States Civil Rights Commission.

A legacy of transformation

Through his tireless legal advocacy, Carl Maxey became known as one of the most influential legal leaders in Washington state. Both of Maxey’s sons, Bill and Bevan, followed their father’s footsteps, graduating from Gonzaga University School of Law and becoming lawyers. In 2006, nine years after Maxey’s death, the Washington State Bar Association Diversity Section instituted a scholarship in Maxey’s name, given to Gonzaga Law students that intend to stay in Spokane and further issues of diversity. A bronze bust of Maxey in the Gonzaga University School of Law Library simply states “He made a difference.”

Click to see full-sized.

Stories of 100 Years is a series written by former Gonzaga Law professor Gary Randall that appears in the Lawyer Magazine, as well as online. See this story in the Summer 2012 Lawyer.

Friction with the University

In 1972 things began to become interesting at the law school. The University was in financial difficulty, and the law school was bringing in revenue. A substantial amount of revenue. Student Bar Association representatives met with main administration officers and received assurances that in the future, more law school tuition would be retained by the law school. Class Action, January 1972.

The intentions may have been good, but the money was not there. And the revenue sharing with the University continued at a level that was eventually determined to not be acceptable by Father Frank Conklin, S.J., who had become dean of the law school in 1973. The Great Tuition Strike of 1975 was in the works.

A string of Deans

Dean Conklin had replaced Dean Lew Orland as an interim dean in 1973. When interviewed by Class Action he was asked: “How do you envision your job as Dean of the Law School?” The answer was classic Frank Conklin, “My job is to answer the phone until the next guy gets here. The sooner the better, so I can get back to practicing law.” Class Action, February 1973.

Things changed, a new dean did not appear.

Conklin became the dean of the law school not long after (he had been dean at an earlier date). The law school was one of the first real environmental programs, recycling him, and later Dean Smithmoore P. Myers, also an earlier dean, into the dean’s office.

A New Gonzaga University President

By the fall of 1974 a new, no-nonsense Gonzaga University president, Father Bernard Coughlin, S.J., had arrived on the scene. The scene was not pretty. The University was in deep financial difficulty. Law school enrollment had exploded. Roughly half of the law school revenue was going to the main university.

Not surprisingly, the University did not share the law school view that law tuition used for university purposes was the law school’s money. It regarded the University as one, big, happy – sort of – family. Share and share alike.

The Tuition Strike of 1975

In the spring of 1975, law students voted for a “tuition strike.” Attorney Bill Powell was hired – he worked pro bono – and an escrow fund was set up for tuition that was due, but would not be sent to the main university until the issue of “overhead” was resolved. Dean Conklin was gone by then, and Dean Myers – the ultimate reasonable man – was the new interim dean.

The American Bar Association accreditation division was interested in Gonzaga Law School. (Gonzaga was not the only law school in the country with revenue sharing problems. At that time there were a substantial number of schools whose “overhead” was quite high.)

Gonzaga Student Bar Association Honored

Rumors abounded that the law school might lose its accreditation. By November of 1975, with Dean Myers the permanent dean and a university agreement (brokered by Father Coughlin) that roughly 80 percent of law school tuition would be retained by the law school, the crisis passed. Law school accreditation was no longer in jeopardy. In September of 1976 the Gonzaga Student Bar Association was named the most outstanding student bar association for the 1975-1976 school year by the ABA. For a variety of things, not just the tuition strike.

Another New Law Dean?

The only frightening thing that occurred in the spring of 1976 was the April 1, 1976 edition of Class Action which began with the headline:

“Dean Myers resigns, Professor Solk named new Dean.”

Luckily it was the April Fools’ Day Edition.

Gonzaga Law in 1970, housed in the former Webster School

Stories of 100 Years is a series written by former Gonzaga Law professor Gary Randall that appears in the Lawyer Magazine, as well as online. See this story in the Winter 2012 Lawyer.

Entering the mainstream

Despite being a night school with many students holding full-time jobs, Gonzaga Law School was operating in a somewhat similar manner as when it opened for day classes in 1970 — the year it is considered as joining the ranks of mainstream law schools across the country.

Birth of the Gonzaga Law Review

The first Gonzaga Law Review, for example, had already debuted. The first issue was published in 1966 with Charlie Flower as editor. The single issue price was $2.

Flower, a Yakima attorney, recalls that the birth of the Law Review was not an easy one. Then full-time night students didn’t have much extra time on their hands. (As I recall my own experiences, such a task was indeed a major undertaking even as a student at a full-time day school. I was the first editor-in-chief of the University of Idaho Law Review that was published just two years prior.) Despite any obstacles, it was created and the first lead article was written by Eldon H. Reilly, then a faculty lecturer.

A study by one Gonzaga head law librarian in later years concluded that a substantial number of law review articles cited by the Washington Supreme Court – in some years the majority – were from the Gonzaga Law Review.

Starting the Clinical Law Program

The clinical law program was “born” in 1972 by the Student Bar Association (with less than great enthusiasm by the Law School administration). At least one (anonymous) member of the Bar lodged a formal complaint that it was the unauthorized practice of law. Jerry Moberg, the Student Bar Association class president, persisted with the help of Judge Kathryn Mautz and Doug Lambert. After a formal hearing before the Washington State Bar Association and with some interest by a local KREM TV reporter, the Bar Association decided this was a very good idea and not a problem at all.

The Gonzaga Student Bar Association won the National Award for Outstanding Student Bar Association the following spring. The law school shortly instigated its own formal clinical law program through Jeff Hartje and Mark Wilson. The program has flourished, provided practical education in an often impractical legal education system, and is one of the most important contributions by the Student Bar Association. Imagine, having students actually practice law rather than just read about it. Heresy.

The Class Action Newspaper made its appearance in 1972. At first it was an “underground newspaper.” Now copies reside in the Rare Books Archive of the Crosby Law Library. They make great reading.

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Click here to view the embedded video.

On July 1, Jane Korn was named the law school’s first female dean of Gonzaga University School of Law.

Gonzaga Law hosted the Race & Criminal Justice in the West Conference and the Environmental Law Symposium.

In association with the Washington State Bar Association, Gonzaga started the Moderate Means Program, a partnership with Washington’s three law schools intended to provide low-cost or free legal assistance to individuals of moderate means.

The Alumni Association started the E-Mentoring Program in collaboration with the Assistant Dean of Students.

Major General William K. Suter delivered the 2011 Luvera Lecture. Suter is a retired clerk of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Launched in 2011, the mission of the Center for Law in Public Service (CLIPS) is to support the aspirations of students who study law in order to use their knowledge and skills for public service, whether they wish to make a full-time practice of public service law or promote the public good through part-time, pro bono legal work.

Career Services changed its name to Center for Professional Development. The Center for Professional Development will continues to serve current students and alumni with personalized advise and direction.

Barbara Madsen, ’77 was sworn in as Chief Justice of the Washington State Supreme Court on January 19.

The Venerable Geshe Thupten Phelgye, a Tibetan monk representing the Dalai Lama in the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile, spoke on March 17.

Judge William A. Fletcher spoke at the inaugural Judge Justin L. Quackenbush Lecture Series on April 12.

Tribute to Smithmoore P. Myers at Patsy Clark Mansion on April 16.

George Critchlow was named interim dean as Earl Martin moved into the Executive Vice President position for Gonzaga University.

Professor Rosanna Malouf Peterson was sworn in as a district judge on the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington.

University Legal Assistance celebrated 35 years of public service.

The Alumni Association started the 1L Mentoring Program at Gonzaga Law.

The Alumni Association started the annual Law Firm Challenge in Spokane and Seattle.

Gonzaga University School of Law moved into the top 100 law schools in the nation, as ranked by U.S. News & World Report magazine in its Best Law School’s 2010 edition.

U.S. News & World Report magazine ranked Gonzaga University School of Law’s clinical training program as being in the top one third in the nation. The School of Law’s Center for Law and Justice is home to University Legal Assistance (ULA), a clinical program dedicated to offering legal support to low income and elderly clients.

Bobby Lee Cook, a well-known defense attorney, delivered the Luvera Lecture on September 30.

First-year students experienced new, cutting-edge curriculum changes that focused on experiential learning and semester-long core classes.

Radio journalist Ari Shapiro presented the William O. Douglas Lecture on October 14.

Mary Pat Treuthart was named the first-ever director of Public Interest Law.

The GU International Law Journal hosted the Trade Symposium which drew scholars from around the world. Professors from China, Japan, and Nepal spoke on “International Trade: Law or Politics?”

Stephen Lewis, Co-Director of AIDS-Free World, delivered the Luvera Lecture on October 27. AIDS-Free World is an international advocacy organization that works to promote more urgent and effective responses to HIV/AIDS.

Kenneth W. Starr was the lecturer at the November 10, William O. Douglas Lecture. Starr authored the Starr Report, which figured prominently in the impeachment proceedings of former President Bill Clinton.

Tax Moot Court Teams won awards on February 28, in the Mugel National Tax Moot Court Tournament in Buffalo, New York.

Formed the Gonzaga University School of Law Alumni Association focusing on the following areas: networking, mentoring, placement, recruiting, and development.