The Multnomah Bar Association now provides numerous services for both attorneys and members of the community involved in the justice system or needing legal assistance.

[1] The CLE committee plans, conducts, and evaluates numerous continuing legal education events for lawyers, by developing topics and recruiting speakers.

[1] The committee's goal is to assist the governor in appointing highly qualified lawyers to be judges on the Multnomah County Circuit Court.

[3] MBA also maintains pro bono programs for other areas of legal assistance, including consumer, family, immigration, and juvenile law, and protection from abuse.

[3] The association is linked to the Multnomah Bar Foundation (MBF), which provides support services to persons involved in the justice system.

[8] Attorneys met at the Abington building in Portland on Saturday evening, February 3, 1906, to plan the creation of the Multnomah Bar Association.

[12] The vote was that "all reputable persons of good moral character who have been admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court [of Oregon] are eligible for membership.

[10] Following the October financial crisis known as the Panic of 1907, the bar association voted to suspend attachment proceedings for 90 days except in emergencies.

[19] The trial judge was Earl C. Bronaugh, Jr.[19] In 1914, prominent lawyer and MBA member Edward Stonewall Jackson McAllister was convicted of sodomy in what became known as the Portland vice scandal.

In August 1915, the bar association chartered the stern-wheel steamboat Joseph Kellogg for an excursion to run from Portland to the Waverly Country Club.

[22] In 1922, the Multnomah County Bar Association became involved in the case of a lawyer, Joseph Woerndle, who had been prosecuted under the Espionage Act and against whom, unsuccessfully, the government had filed de-naturalization proceedings.

[25] In 1920, the Multnomah Bar association had the practice of sending a representative to each session of the Oregon Legislature to assist in putting through measures to facilitate procedures in court.

[29] The Multnomah Bar Association had long favored a non-partisan judiciary, going so far as drafting bills and causing them to be introduced in the Oregon State Legislature.

[31] On April 9, 1914, the Morning Oregonian complained that "since the assassination of Ralph Fisher by the maniacal Jim Finch the lawyers have evidently lost interest in checking the rapacity of the male harpies and blood-suckers who disgrace the profession.

[44] On August 7, 1913, Circuit Court Judge Henry E. McGinn, who was reported to have had an unusual juridical style,[45] declared the surcharge law unconstitutional, saying it was unjust and a "burning shame that clients should have to pay for educating their lawyers.

[51] In the next twelve months the legal aid department handled 130 matters, including loan shark troubles, non-support, wage collection, and property rights.

[51] Mahaffie, a Rhodes Scholar, and later, from 1930 to 1955, a commissioner of the Interstate Commerce Commission was hired in 1913 to work full time for the Legal Aid Department.

[54] Lawyers for the legal aid service won important cases including, in 1972, State v. Collman, which established the right of persons placed in mental commitment hearings to have counsel appointed by the court to act on their behalf.

[61] A few weeks later, Senator Malarky announced that a full schedule of fees had been agreed on and would be submitted to the association for ratification at its meeting on the evening of April 28, 1906, at the circuit court.

[61] By this time, almost all the attorneys in Multnomah County were members of the association and there was expected a large attendance at the meeting and "some warm debates" about the proposals.

[64] In 1975, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that bar association minimum fee schedules were not exempt from the Sherman Antitrust Act.

As a voluntary association, MBA could terminate the membership of an attorney, but it had no legal power to directly bring a disbarment action against a lawyer.

[68] In the first five months of 1922, the grievance committee of the Multnomah County Bar association, of which lawyer Hugh Montgomery was chairman, held 17 hearings, and had investigated more than 50 cases.

For example, in June 1914, the MBA prosecutor sought information from the Multnomah County district attorney regarding three cases against who disbarment proceedings were either pending or were contemplated.

I can feel some sympathy for the poor beggar whose hunger and desperation forces him to steal, but a lawyer who takes advantage of the fiduciary relation existing between himself and a client, and the trust reposed in him, deserves scant consideration.

"[69] In July 1922, the Oregon Supreme Court was ready to break precedent by taking live testimony in disbarment proceedings initiated by the Multnomah Bar Association against Portland lawyer George Estes.

[73] The Multnomah Bar association initiated another disbarment proceeding in the early 1920s before the Oregon Supreme Court, this time against Portland lawyer Morris A.

[74] The Oregon Supreme Court, in an opinion by Chief Justice John L. Rand, agreed with Judge Belt, and Goldstein was disbarred by order dated December 27, 1923.

[77] Arnold was eventually disbarred for having forged an endorsement on a client's check payable to court reporter for a transcript for an appeal, and keeping the money for himself.

[78] In 1934, the Oregon Supreme Court, on the relation of the chancellors of the Multnomah Bar Association, entered an order of disbarment against lawyer Frank A. McMenamin, on charges of obtaining money by fraud and deceit.