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Bar News - June 7, 2002 Incoming Bar President Martha Van Oot to Sharpen Focus on Member Needs By: Dan Wise THE EVENTS OF the past couple of years have required Bar leaders to focus on legislative developments and on supporting the judiciary as an institution. Marty Van Oot, who takes over as NHBA president later this month, expects that legislative scrutiny will lessen in its intensity and that the coming years will allow Bar leaders to re-focus on member needs and interests. Van Oot, who last year joined the Concord law firm of Orr & Reno, will take over as the 2002-2003 NHBA president at the conclusion of the 2002 Annual Meeting, to be held at the Portsmouth Harborside Hotel June 20-22. Van Oot succeeds Peter E. Hutchins and will be the third female Bar president in the organization's history (preceding her in breaking through the all-male ranks of the Bar leadership were Patti Blanchette and the Hon. Susan B. Carbon). Van Oot, a Hopkinton resident, has maintained a statewide trial practice, and looks forward to making contact with Bar members around the state. "We have to go back and listen to our constituents," she said. "That is what we as the organized Bar are here for. We can't do the other things the Bar does - Pro Bono, LRE, the Bar Foundation - without the support our Bar members." Van Oot said the Legislature's recent attempt to force a vote of Bar members on the question of mandatory Bar membership (a measure vetoed by Gov. Shaheen; see Shaheen's veto message on page 4) coincides with efforts already underway by the Bar to probe members' opinions on services, programs and the structure of the Bar. Beginning with a general survey included in the dues packet, the Bar will be soliciting input and comments from Bar members through a variety of means in the coming year. Addressing members' needs has always been the priority of the Bar, and Van Oot notes that despite the intensity of the past legislative session, there has been much progress lately. The Bar recently created a subsidiary to provide members with assistance in purchasing professional liability insurance, and in about six months, the Bar will launch "New Hampshire Casemaker," an online law library of New Hampshire case law and other resources. It will be made available as a member benefit, and represents a further enhancement of services the Bar is making available to members through its Web site. Through e-mail listervs and the redeployment of staff resources to provide a section coordinator, substantive law sections are more active and Bar members are getting more value from their participation in sections. Another ongoing effort now entering its third year is the local Bar outreach program that has brought elected NHBA representatives to local Bar meetings. Last year's outreach program provided members with videotaped mini-debates on judicial tenure and on the constitutional amendment on court versus legislative authority over court rulemaking. Van Oot said she expects the local Bar outreach programs starting this fall will be focused on acquainting members with Bar resources, old and new, and will serve as listening sessions on a range of issues. Van Oot said she looks forward to spending time in various counties, hearing from members. It is not something she is unaccustomed to. During her 24-year legal career, she has tried cases in almost every county in the state and has utilized her legal skills in a variety of settings - in large and small firms, in the public sector, as a mediator, and as a law professor. She jokes that her career is a case of "not being able to keep a job," but clearly, it indicates a restless nature; a person constantly seeking new challenges to overcome. Van Oot graduated from Middlebury College in 1975 and earned her law degree from Northeastern University School of Law in 1978. She worked for Goodwin, Procter & Hoar in Boston before moving to New Hampshire, where she joined the Attorney General's Office in 1980. She was a prosecutor in the Criminal Division and then was promoted to chief of the Civil Division. She next went to work for the Devine Millimet law firm from 1985 to 1989. Formerly known as Marty Gordon, she was a founding member of two law firms - the Merrill & Broderick firm in 1989, and then in 1991, the Nelson, Kinder, Mosseau & Gordon law firm. Last year, after an energizing two-year hiatus that included teaching and private mediation, she joined the Orr & Reno law firm as a director. She said one of the prime considerations in joining Orr & Reno was the law firm's support for her commitment to serve as a Bar president, which represents a multi-year commitment. As an incoming Bar president seeking to develop an agenda, Van Oot doesn't want to tilt at windmills by trying to rehabilitate the public's view of the profession through advertising or PR campaigns. "I don't want to talk about the image of lawyers," she said. "The difficulties people have had with lawyers as a group go a long way back, and that image today is shaped by media forces that are much larger than our Bar." Having said that, Van Oot does believe that the organized Bar should highlight the positive accomplishments and community service of lawyers. "I want to help lawyers feel positive about the work that they do," she said. One encouraging aspect about lawyering today is the increasing involvement of lawyers in alternative dispute resolution, said Van Oot. "Whatever people say about lawyers, they call on us to help resolve difficult matters," she said, citing as an example her appointment (1999-2001) as special master to the probate court in the breakup of the Catholic Medical Center and Elliott Hospital merger. "It was a very good example of the problem-solving role of lawyers," Van Oot said. "The parties, through their lawyers, created their own process to solve a very complex political, social, economic and legal puzzle. It was very satisfying to me to see a group of excellent lawyers work collaboratively toward a solution for their community ." Another challenge Van Oot took up during her hiatus from private practice was teaching law at Vermont Law School and Franklin Pierce Law Center. "Teaching has been a great experience. Being at law school takes a cynical middle-aged lawyer back to the days when you became a lawyer to save the world." As a result of her teaching, she sees many opportunities for collaboration between the NH legal community and Pierce Law that will enrich the legal education of future lawyers, improve the diversity of NH's legal ranks, and provide other NH lawyers with the stimulating experience of working with idealistic law students.
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