NEW S
SPENDY BASH PLANNED
FOR RETIRING FED JUDGE
PHOTO: HOGANRETIREMENT.COM
Michael Hogan has stepped down after 39 years as a
judge in federal courts, and the $100,000-plus privately
funded retirement bash planned in his honor has been
downsized at his request. The change in plans also follows
a story in Willamette Week Nov. 21 that quotes Portland at-
torney Michael Esler saying “The ostentatiousness makes
us lawyers look even worse than we already look.”
“The grand idea of having the world’s best party has
turned into a fun tailgater,” says attorney Tom Hoyt of the
Eugene law fi rm Speer Hoyt. He came up with the idea and
heads a small committee organizing the event set for Jan.
12 at the Club Room at Autzen Stadium.
The original budget has two columns, one if 500 guests
RSVP, the other is for 700 guests, and Hoyt says that it’s
too early to know the numbers. The budget for food and
drinks alone was $50,000 to $70,000, and the local PR
fi rm Cawood Communications would be paid $10,000 to
$12,000 to help organize the event, do the website and reg-
istration. Transforming the Club Room into “party central”
would cost $21,000 to $22,000; and an “appropriate gift”
to Hogan is anticipated to cost $5,000.
Hogan, a UO grad before attending law school at
Georgetown, is a big Duck football fan and is known for
his tailgating parties before home games, so the new, much
cheaper menu will refl ect that. “Originally I was going to
have sliced prime rib and certifi ed tofu and wild salmon,
and now we’re down to sliders, hamburgers, hot dogs and
chicken sticks,” Hoyt says. “It’s going to be a fi ne party and
we’re hoping to have a lot of people.” Information about
Hogan Retirement Event, Inc. and registration for the party
can be found at hoganretirement.com Tickets are $40.
Hoyt formed a 501(c)(4) not-for-profi t organization to
handle the event’s fi nances. “I wanted to have a separate
bank account,” he says. “I’ve hired a CPA to audit it and
all of the moneys will be run through it, and if we have
any money leftover that check will go to the Campaign for
Equal Justice [which provides legal aid services]. And then
we close it out. I didn’t want anybody to think that Tom
Hoyt or anybody else associated with this was going to
make a nickel off of it.”
Hogan has worked with hundreds of lawyers and judges
during his career and they are scattered all over the country.
“I’m still building a list of people who will receive emails
and I’m making it fairly broad,” Hoyt says, “and of course
we have the Hogan family and personal acquaintances, the
judiciary, the marshal’s offi ce, people he’s worked with.”
What does Hogan think about this party? “He’s hum-
bled and embarrassed and he doesn’t like people fussing
over him, and I basically told him to build a bridge and get
over it because it was going to happen,” Hoyt says. “It’s an
effort by a group of us to try to recognize his contribution.
He’s been an outstanding jurist.”
Hogan’s mediation skills have garnered him a lot of ad-
mirers in recent years. He has played pivotal roles in sex-
abuse settlements with the Catholic Church and he person-
ally managed the $1.3 billion bankruptcy restructuring of
Sunwest Management, a huge nursing home enterprise,
without shutting down any facilities.
His reputation among environmental attorneys and ac-
tivists is not so glowing. Hogan ruled in favor of the timber
industry on numerous old-growth timber sale lawsuits and
several of his rulings were overturned by the Ninth Circuit
Court on appeal. And he made headlines and angered biol-
ogists in 2001 when he ruled that threatened wild stocks of
Oregon coastal Coho salmon were equivalent to hatchery-
bred Coho and did not need protection.
“You can write anything you want to about that,” says
Hoyt when asked about the environmental rulings. “I’m
just talking about my friend who called them the way he
saw them and did a pretty good job of being a judge. My
objective is not to review all of his decisions but to thank
him for being there.” — Ted Taylor
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November 29, 2012 • eugeneweekly.com
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