Memories of Sid Lezak

---

by Jay Folberg Editor's Note: Sid Lezak, the longest serving U.S. Attorney in Oregon's history, dedicated the last 25 years of his career to furthering mediation. Sid died on April 24, 2006 at the age of 80. Sid is widely regarded as the "godfather" of mediation in Oregon. In this article, Jay Folberg shares his memories of Sid. You can read more and watch a recent interview of Sid by clicking here.

-Print -Email -Comment -Subscribe  (free)

Last month, shortly after Sid returned from New Zealand, we spoke by telephone. I wanted Sid to know that he was a central figure in my “last lecture” at the University of San Francisco School of Law. As always, it was a delight talking to Sid. He was upbeat, funny and had great stories to tell. He also, uncharacteristically, spoke of slowing down and having trouble with his memory.

I was so glad that I had the opportunity to tell Sid that my last lecture, given upon my retirement from teaching at the law school, was about the importance of mentoring. The lecture was illustrated with pictures and stories of those who had mentored me. I spoke at length about Sid Lezak to an audience of students and faculty that didn’t know Sid. With Sid’s smiling face and jaunty bow tie projected on the lecture hall screen, I told them of the gift that Sid gave me and a legion of others who he had so generously mentored, professionally and personally.

A mentor is like a guide who has been to where you would like to go. A mentor can point out the obstacles and the best way to get to your destination and enjoy the journey. A mentor enters your life and leads by example, provides inspiration and serves as a model. I was so very fortunate to know Sid as a model and inspiration for what I will always aspire to be like, even if it is an impossible goal.

After my first year in law school, grants were available through the Ford Foundation for summer clerkships in the criminal justice system. My criminal law professor, Sandy Kadish, arranged with Hans Linde, who had taught as a Visitor at Boalt Hall, for a placement with Sid Lezak, the reform minded Kennedy appointed United States Attorney for Oregon. Sid had not had a student clerk and called Professor Kadish to ask if he was sending one of those “bearded Berkeley law students” to be his first clerk. Professor Kadish, who didn’t know Sid or what to make of his comment, felt obliged to let me know what Sid said. I shaved off my full beard before heading up to Portland in the summer of 1966. Sid seemed truly disappointed to meet his clean shaven clerk.

Sid placed me at a desk in his large office in the old US Court House so I could see and hear everything that went on there. Even though I was investigated and given security clearance, the head of the Oregon office of the FBI questioned Sid about the propriety of having a former student activist from Berkeley overhear sensitive conversations about bank robberies and draft resistors. Sid took me to lunch with the FBI agent and we talked it through and “worked it out” in typical Sid fashion. I was allowed to accompany the FBI on investigations and sit in on charging discussions.

How lucky I was to be the first of Sid’s clerks. He took me and the dozens of others who followed under his wing and introduced us to the Portland legal establishment. He was unfailingly generous with his time, his connections, his explanations and his stories. He seemed to be everyone’s best friend and interested in the lives of all those he met. I believe Sid invented networking.

Watching Sid negotiate plea bargains and civil settlements provided me a different perspective on law practice than available from texts and sparked a career long interest in negotiation and mediation. Sid masterfully employed interest based negotiation and principled bargaining long before “Getting to Yes” was a glimmer in Roger Fisher’s professorial eye. He was a natural mediator, drawing on his labor and employment law background to craft solutions to perplexing policy conflicts and agreements between competing interests. His skills preceded the terminology we now use to describe what the best mediators are able to accomplish. It was these skills and personality gifts that allowed Sid to serve for an unprecedented 21 plus years as US Attorney for Oregon under six presidents, half blue and half red.

Sid’s professional life was intertwined with his social life and complimented by his wonderful partnership with his wife Muriel. After work cocktail hours and weekend parties on the deck of their home in the Portland hills were a highlight of the summer of 1966 and for many years after that. (A welcome responsibility of summer clerking for Sid was mixing drinks.) All of Portland’s legal, political, art and academic leaders and interesting people of all descriptions found their way up Sid’s and Muriel’s driveway to their deck. Everyone seemed at home there and was treated by the Lezaks as extended family. Sid regaled us with stories, gossip and insights. He rejoiced in getting diverse people together and forging coalitions and mutual support among his friends.

It is probably no coincidence that mediation started to gain acceptance in Oregon shortly after Sid stepped-down as US Attorney in 1982, when he was increasingly asked to mediate private and public disputes. His second career as the “Dean” of Oregon mediators was an extension of his earlier work settling conflicts as US Attorney, facilitating policy consensus and being trusted as a wise and caring professional. In 1987 he was appointed by Governor Neil Goldschmidt to chair the Oregon Dispute Resolution Advisory Council, which successfully prepared and guided legislation to create the Oregon Dispute Resolution Commission. As a member of the Advisory Council, I observed Sid educate legislators and community leaders about the potential of mediation and the need for public support for community and policy mediation. Sid’s vision guided the Council and helped shape the future of mediation in Oregon and beyond. He was the first chair of Dispute Resolution Committees of the Oregon State Bar and the Oregon Federal Bar Association. He became a main stay of national ADR conferences.

I watched Sid gracefully age from being everyone’s best friend in Oregon to become “Uncle Sid” to the national mediation community. The reverence felt for Sid by those in Oregon spread throughout the country. Although I would like to think of Sid as my unique, personal mentor, I know that my experience is matched by countless others who benefited from Sid entering their lives and being mentored by him. Sid’s life, career and humanity is a positive model and inspiration to all who knew him. Sid led the way where all of us would like to go and showed us how to enjoy the journey.

Thank you Sid. We will miss you.

Biography

---

Jay Folberg is Professor Emeritus and former Dean of the University of San Francisco School of Law. He is co-author of Resolving Disputes: Theory, Practice and Law, Aspen Press, 2005. Dean Folberg is now a mediator and arbitrator with JAMS and heads the JAMS Institute.

Email Author
Additional articles by Jay Folberg

Comments

Tweet

---

Free subscription to comments on this article

Add Brief Comment

Alison Kelley,   Portland OR	05/04/06
From the Oregon State Bar ADR Section
May 2, 2006 To the Family of Sidney I. Lezak Dear Muriel and Members of Sid’s Family: On behalf of the Oregon State Bar’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Section, I write to convey to you our love, sympathy and sadness at Sid’s passing. We join you in celebrating Sid’s remarkable life and work. Many of us were fortunate to have known and worked closely with Sid. Of all the well-recognized, impressive accomplishments throughout his career, we are especially grateful for Sid’s passionate commitment to fostering alternative dispute resolution throughout the State of Oregon. Widely believed to be the “father” of ADR in Oregon, Sid initiated the formation of the first Bar-related committees on ADR in the State. He started the Federal Bar ADR Committee in 1985 and then chaired the Oregon State Bar ADR Committee shortly thereafter. He chaired the Oregon Advisory Council on Dispute Resolution in 1987, which preceded the Oregon Dispute Resolution Commission. His extensive service on panels of the American Arbitration Association, the Arbitration Service of Portland, and U.S. Arbitration and Mediation was indicative of his tireless commitment. Sid’s acute intelligence and exceptional competence permeated all his activities. Those gifts were enhanced by his magnetic personality and genuine interest in others. We are deeply grateful for Sid’s unequalled willingness to mentor others interested in learning about mediation. He created opportunities for many of us to participate in his sessions in order to observe, learn, and grow. Sid was uniquely gifted in turning small opportunities into enduring relationships. In Aristotle’s words, “Friendship is community, and as we are in relation to ourselves, so we are in relation to a friend.” It may well be Sid’s capacity for building friendships that we will miss the most. Sid was the embodiment of generosity. The author, William Kittredge, in his book Generosity, wrote that “Generosity is the endless project.” Sid engaged endlessly in that project. Inspired by the frescoes of Fra Angelica in Florence, Kittredge also wrote “turn your life into a gift, and then pour it out to others and thus to yourself as you prepare to vanish.” Sid did that, in the mediation community and in the community of our American democracy. Now he has departed, but his traces and his legacy are everywhere. We are profoundly grateful for the gift of Sid, and for you, his family. We are proud that the ADR Section created The Sidney Lezak Award for Excellence in ADR in 1996. He was the first recipient of that award, which is designed to acknowledge excellence in the field of Alternative Dispute Resolution. The award will be one way in which we carry on his legacy. Our contribution to the Campaign for Equal Justice in his name will be another way to honor his life and work. On a broader scale, we will resolve to extend his legacy by mirroring his example: promoting conflict resolution in many forms, mentoring those interested in the field, and creating opportunities for building long-lasting friendships. We both mourn his passing and celebrate his life with deepest gratitude. Thank you, Muriel, and all the members of Sid’s family, for sharing him with us all these years. Alison S. Kelley Chair Alternative Dispute Resolution Section Oregon State Bar Add New Comment

Mike Roberts,   San Diego CA	roberts@mediations.com      05/01/06
Sid Lezak
Thanks Jay for capturing the soul of this "beautiful" man. I spent many evenings at the dinner table with Sid and Muriel during IAM conferences. They made me feel like an adopted son. Sid (and Muriel) modeled what it means to live life to the fullest right up to the end. Its exactly the life I hope for myself. The suprise of Sid's death hit me like a ton of bricks. His loss is very personal to me. I could never write the words as elequently as Jay but I wanted to give the biggest tribute to Sid that I possibly could. His death leaves a big hole in my life which will be difficult to fill. I think his affect on me and the loss I feel best quantifies the measure of this man and the tripute I wanted to give. Jay's article helped me start my own grief process and for that I thank him. Add New Comment

Kevin  Forrester	04/30/06
It was my privilege to know Sid Lezak, if only briefly, through my involvement with the IAM. I am writing this to supplement the record of Sid's life that I have seen widely published since his death (except for Robert Benjamin's wonderful interview of Sid available on mediate.com, which I commend to you). Sid Lezak served in the Army Air Corps from 1942 to 1945 and he deserves to be remembered, and honored, for this service as well as for his many other remarkable accomplishments. Sid was a World War II aviator as a teenager. He was a decorated veteran by the age of 20. Sid's service during these years both formed and revealed his character. And Sid is revered, and loved, and will be remembered, not because of any single act or accomplishment of his lifetime, but because he was a man of character. So, as you remember Sid, and as you pray for him, please thank him for this first of many selfless acts committed by him on behalf others, on behalf of his country, and on behalf of you. Add New Comment

Deborah Sword,   Calgary AB	04/27/06
Sid
Thanks to Jay and Robert for the memories of Sid; but unless you are woman, there was a side of Sid you didn't know. No one appreciated women mediators as much as Sid. Scorning political correctness, Sid flirted shamelessly to bring out the best in his women 'mentees' as he loved to call us. He enjoyed sparring with women and delighted when they matched his wit and knowledge. Sexist? Proudly so. Ahead of his time? Assuredly. Add New Comment

Geoff Sharp,   Wellington New Zealand	mediate@geoffsharp.co.nz      04/25/06
Sid Lezak, Kiwi
I have wonderful memories of Sid and Murial downunder in New Zealand this last Christmas when we had lunch and walked down memory lane. Sid had a fondness for my country that few feel. After lunch we went visiting the new American Ambassador who Sid knew from Portland. I knew (and soon so did the Ambassador) Sid was checking up on him to make sure he making the right start. It was in the nature of a caring elder/young upstart conversation. For a blog of that visit go to; http://mediatorblahblah.blogspot.com/2006/02/sid-lezak.html Funny, as I sit here in California waiting for a plane to IAM's spring meet in Boston, I have a lapel pin in my bag in the shape of a kiwi intended for Sid to let him know he was one of us. Add New Comment

See All 9 Comments

The views expressed by authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Resourceful Internet Solutions, Inc., Mediate.com or of reviewing editors.