State Bar Dimisses UO Professor's Complaint Against Lawyers Involved in the Energy Department Investigation

The Oregon State Bar has dismissed a complaint filed by University of Oregon economics professor Bill Harbaugh, filed in May against prominent Eugene lawyers Bill Gary and Sharon Rudnick and University of Oregon General Counsel Randy Geller.

In his complaint, Harbaugh accused Gary and Rudnick of misleading Marion County Judge Thomas Hart last year about the value of legal services their firm, Harrang Long Gary Rudnick, provided in a public records battle with the Oregon Department of Justice. The complaint accused Geller of helping the lawyers mislead the judge with a less than candid affidavit in support of their request for fees. 

However, in an email sent to Harbaugh last week by OSB General Counsel Chris L. Mullmann, the bar found "not a scintilla of evidence" that Geller aided the lawyers in a quest to raise their billings. He dismissed all claims made against the three.

Harrang Long sent WW an email copy of the complaint's dismissal; Oregon State Bar officials confirmed they had declined to refer the complaint to the Disciplinary Counsel's Office.

Long and three other Energy Department employees were put on paid leave in 2010 while the DOJ launched an investigation into whether they improperly steered a $60,000 contract to Hayes' company, which had finished dead last for another contract. 

WWeek 2015