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Riverside County Bar Association president making a case for lawyers

07:44 PM PDT on Wednesday, October 8, 2008
By RICHARD K. DE ATLEY
The Press-Enterprise

E. Aurora Hughes' first impression of Riverside, as a new attorney applying for a job, was not a good one.

In 1979 -- late in the game for someone to be shocked that a woman had passed the bar -- her interviewer at a Riverside law firm declined to talk after seeing her and realizing the nickname "Rory" on her resume was short for Aurora.

Things have changed considerably for Hughes, 54, who has started her one-year term of the 1,037-member Riverside County Bar Association. And also for Riverside.

"It's just the best place to practice law," she said.

As bar president, Hughes wants its members to go to the public and explain the role of the judiciary.

"Judges can't speak for themselves. They are prohibited from doing so on active cases," she said during an interview at the Rancho Cucamonga home she shares with husband Joe Gonzales. "They can't defend themselves on why they made a decision, so the Bar Association can speak out," she said.

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Greg Vojtko / The Press-Enterprise
E. Aurora Hughes is president of the Riverside County Bar Association. She was diagnosed in March with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
And she wants bar members to work on presenting a better image of lawyers.

"They have a reputation of being mean and nasty. The public needs to be educated, and lawyers need to be educated, about their roles," she said.

If anyone needs an example of lawyers on the high road, colleagues think Hughes is one of the best examples.

She was diagnosed in March with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease. It attacks the brain's motor neurons that send signals to control muscles in the body. As the neurons fail, the brain loses its ability to control voluntary muscles, leading to paralysis.

Hughes gave her Sept. 18 initiation speech from her wheelchair.

Along with her plans for the year, she has outlined to her fellow bar members and officers the course of the disease that has no cure.

"I don't have any problem talking about it at all," she said in her interview. "Eventually I will be paralyzed completely. I will be unable to speak, to swallow. I will eventually be unable to breathe," she said.

Work Ahead

During her term, she also wants to continue the county bar's work to get more judges for Riverside County, educating the public about the effects of the judicial shortage, and asking attorneys, whether members of the county bar or not, to join the effort.

Riverside County judgeships, created by the state Legislature, have not kept up with the county's 15-year population boom. The county should have 133 judges and commissioners, according to a work study used by the state Judicial Council, but currently has 76.

As county bar president, she is a member of the standing group that meets to discuss and make policy suggestions about the continuing problems facing Riverside County's courts, the most congested in the state.

Her constituency, which includes a large number of civil attorneys, faces several challenges. Hughes has worked on insurance defense cases, family law, labor and liability cases during her career. .

Civil trials have had to take a back seat to criminal matters in Riverside County courts because of congested court calendars. Four courtrooms, three in Riverside and one in Palm Springs, have been opened this year to hear civil matters only.

Hughes says progress is still slow for civil cases. The pressure to settle as trial approaches isn't there because civil cases keep getting delayed. As a result, she said, cases linger when they should be resolved.

"It is very frustrating for civil lawyers" and their clients, she said.

Battling Illness

Her forthrightness about her illness brought support, said county bar president-elect Harry J. Histen III.

"She is the person for the job," Histen said. "And because of her situation, I think she has a greater sense of urgency for what she wants to do."

Histen said Hughes put her fellow bar members at ease.

"She came in and she just went through the illness, how it progresses, the things that will happen to her," he said. "Everyone is very relaxed and comfortable now -- it was marvelous how she handled it. We were kind of tiptoeing around."

Hughes said she is working now on recording herself so that if she needs to use voice recognition software, people will hear her, and not a mechanical readout.

Hughes said she started to notice unusual tiredness in February 2007 while she was in trial in Orange County.

"I noticed towards the end of the trial, man, it was hard pulling my boxes of paperwork and picking them up and loading them in the car. I was short of breath. It just took a lot more out of me than I thought it would," she said.

Her gait became uncertain. She started falling .

A series of tests and doctors led to the diagnosis on March 27 of this year at the UCLA Medical Center. She was told the same day of her tests. "Luckily my husband was with me."

Hughes said she has had offers of support from fellow attorneys, from driving her to doctor appointments and buying groceries to covering for her at meetings.

"Because of her behavior, I am not walking on eggshells," Histen said. "I have admiration for her, rather than sympathy or pity. And that is why she talked to us, because she doesn't want anything like that."

Reach Richard K. De Atley at 951-368-9573 or rdeatley@PE.com

Riverside County Bar Association 2008-09 Officers

President: E. Aurora Hughes

President-elect: Harry J. Histen III

Vice President: Harlan B. Kistler

Chief Financial Officer: Robyn A. Lewis

Secretary: Christopher B. Harmon

Past President: Daniel Hantman

http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/s...9.383193d.html