Alaska Employment Law

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Stevens-Murkowski-Young brief in Exxon appeal

In the Alaska Delegation’s amicus brief to the U.  S. Supreme Court in support of the Exxon Valdez plaintiff class, this citation appears (fn. 2 on p. 8):

For an extended historical discussion of the relationship between maritime and common law, see generally Theodore F. Stevens, Erie R.R. v. Tompkins and the Uniform General Maritime Law, 64 HARV. L. REV. 246 (1950).

The counsel of record on the brief is Theodore F. Stevens.  

Stevens was graduated from Harvard Law School in 1950. 

According to Wikipedia:

While at Harvard, Stevens wrote a paper on maritime law which received honorable mention for the Addison Brown prize, a Harvard Law School award made for the best essay by a student on a subject related to private international law or maritime law.^[7] The essay later became a Harvard Law Review article^[9] whose scholarship Justice Jay Rabinowitz of the Alaska Supreme Court praised 45 years later, telling the Anchorage Daily News in 1994 that the high court had issued a recent opinion citing the article.^[3]

Actually, the Alaska Supreme Court cited Stevens’ article twice, both times in 1970, and both in opinions authored by Justice Rabinowitz.  Shannon v. City of Anchorage, 478 P.2d 815, 818 n.9 (Alaska 1970); Maxwell v. Olsen, 468 P.2d 48, 51 n.14 (Alaska 1970). 

Steven is currently an “Inactive” member of the Alaska bar, but he’s obviously retained his admission to the U. S. Supreme Court.  The history of his application for admission to the Alaska Bar is laid out in Application of Stevens, 355 P.2d 164 (Alaska 1960). 

When Stevens first applied in 1956, the Board of Governors found that he was not an Alaska resident.  In 1960, the Board agreed to reconsider the matter and invited Stevens to supplement his application.   Stevens filed an affidavit laying out his intent to return to Alaska upon completion of his employment with the Interior Department in Washington, D.C., his absentee voting record in Alaska elections, etc.    The Board then reversed itself, but James E. Fisher ”objected” to the residency finding, reportedly at the request of another attorney.  

On appeal, the Alaska Supreme Court affirmed the Board, holding:

The uncontradicted facts upon which the Board of Governors acted in this case show that applicant came to Alaska in March of 1953, was employed in a private law office in Fairbanks until September of 1953, when he became United States Attorney there, serving in this position until June of 1956. Applicant departed Alaska in June of 1956 to accept employment with the United States Government in Washington, D. C. and is still so employed there. He has voted in Alaska by absentee ballot in the general elections in Alaska since his departure and has on many occasions since stated that his intent was to maintain his Alaska residence and eventually return to maintain his home there.

We hold that under these facts the finding of the Board of Governors was justified, the objection has not been sustained and applicant will be admitted to the Alaska Bar.

The members of the 1960 BOG were (President) Cliff Groh, William Boggess, Robert Boochever, M. E. Monagle, Robert Jernberg, R. J. McNealy, Michael Stepovich, and Harold Butcher.  Bill Boggess is retired and lives in Fairbanks.  Mike Stepovich is retired and lives in sourthern Oregon.  Bob Boochever is a Senior Judge on the 9th Circuit, living in Pasadena, California.  Jamie Fisher is retired and lives in Soldatna.

The Board’s admission of Stevens later formed part of the basis for Thomas Obermeyer’s suit against the Bar Association for discriminatory application of admission rules, anti-trust violations, etc., claims that the Supreme Court rejected in Application of Obermeyer, 2000 WL 34545818 (Alaska 2000).

Stevens appeared as counsel of record in six Alaska Supreme Court opinions from 1960 until he left for D.C. again in December of 1968, having been appointed by Gov. Walter Hickel to replace the recently deceased Bob Bartlett in the U. S. Senate.

(Thanks to Deborah O’Regan for tracking down the 1960 BOG membership.)