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Kathryn Villa-Smith, a member of the Oregon Hispanic Bar Association, practices family law as a shareholder at Gevurtz Menashe. With over 26 years of experience, Ms. Villa-Smith is compassionate, sensitive, and a strong advocate for resolving cases through the mediation process. She is acutely aware of the stress her clients are going through, from custody issues to the expense of a divorce. Ms. Villa-Smith is an experienced and well-respected litigator who handles numerous trials in any given year. Before practicing family law, Ms. Villa-Smith prosecuted serious felony cases for the Multnomah County District Attorney 's office, where she worked for 10 years.

Throughout her career, she has remained active in the community. Ms. Villa-Smith chaired the Multnomah Bar Association Committee to Advance Equality in the Law in 1997 and served on the Serving Hispanics Committee for the Girl Scouts of America in 1995. Ms. Villa-Smith participated in the Whitaker Middle School Mentor Program in 1997 and 1998, taught Street Law at Reynolds High School, and has been a judge for the High School Mock Trial Competition. Ms. Villa-Smith currently sits on the Board of Directors for the St. Andrew Legal Clinic and is a strong supporter of Oregon 's Campaign For Equal Justice. Ms. Villa-Smith has served as a Pro Tem Judge in Clackamas County and has represented many clients of modest means on a pro bono basis. Over the years, many young lawyers have benefited tremendously from her mentoring.

Although often emotionally and physically challenging, Ms. Villa-Smith has been able to balance caring for her family while pursuing her career. She is proud of her three children. Her eldest son, Matthew, is a Portland doctor. Her daughter, Amber, teaches English literature at Gresham High School after having completed her master 's degree in education at Lewis and Clark College. Her youngest son, Nathan, is an honor student at Oregon State University. This past December, Ms. Villa-Smith and her husband, Steve, celebrated their 37th wedding anniversary.

Daniel P. Santos was born and raised in Brawley, California, in the agricultural Imperial Valley and worked summers in the fields of the Imperial and San Joaquin Valleys. He is a graduate of Willamette College of Law and Southern Oregon University.

Having served in the administration of four governors, Mr. Santos currently serves as a Senior Policy Advisor for the Office of Governor Ted Kulongoski, working on an array of issues including labor, collective bargaining matters, housing, workforce, education, military services, and emergency management. He also worked for Willamette University College of Law, Marion & Polk Legal Services, the Oregon Migrant Education Service Center, and the Jackson County Migrant Education Program.

Through his work and extracurricular activities, Mr. Santos has influenced the lives of countless minorities over the years. In addition to providing clerkships and internships in the courts and governor's office for women and minorities, he serves as a founding member of Scholarships for Oregon Latinos, a program that connects Hispanic youth in need of financial assistance for college with local businesses. This program alone has changed the lives of numerous Hispanic youths in Oregon, helping them gain greater access to higher education.

Mr. Santos also serves on many other community organizations including the Oregon Community Foundation North Willamette Valley Leadership Council, Oregon After School for Kids (Oregon ASK) Steering Committee, and the Leadership Council for Oregon Mentors. Through these efforts, he helps to provide greater educational and leadership opportunities for young people.

Professor Avila is a nationally recognized expert on Latina/o voting rights. After his clerkship, Professor Avila joined the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, initially as staff attorney, 1974-76, then as Associate Counsel, 1976-82, and finally as President and General Counsel, 1982-85. During this eleven year period, Professor Avila filed actions challenging discriminatory at-large methods of elections, gerrymandered election districts, violations of the one-person one-vote principle and non-compliance with the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965. From 1981 to 1982, he testified before various legislative committees and was involved in the efforts to both amend and reauthorize the Voting Rights Act in 1982.

In 1985, Professor Avila established a private practice, focusing exclusively on protecting minority voting rights. He was instrumental in the dismantling of many discriminatory methods of election throughout California and parts of the Southwest. During this time, he also successfully argued two appeals in the United States Supreme Court involving enforcement of the special provisions of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 Ð one decision was unanimous and the other was 8-1. He also spearheaded various legislative efforts in California to make the electoral process more accessible to Latinas/os. His most significant accomplishment in the legislative arena was the passage of the 2001 California State Voting Rights Act. This Act permits challenges to discriminatory at-large methods of elections in state courts without having to prove a host of evidentiary factors as required under the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965. This is the only state voting rights act in the nation.

Professor Avila has taught courses at the University of California/Berkeley, University of Texas, and UCLA schools of law. Professor Avila has received numerous awards in recognition of his work in the voting rights area. He received a John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship in 1996 for his voting rights work. In the same year, he received the Vanguard Public Foundation's Social Justice Sabbatical for his work in providing political access to minority communities. In 2001, he received the State Bar of California's Loren Miller Legal Services Award for providing outstanding legal services to disadvantaged and underserved communities. In 1986, he received the Hispanic National Bar Association's Benito Juarez/Abraham Lincoln Award for outstanding achievement and dedication to the Latino community.

At Seattle University School of Law Professor Avila has received the Outstanding Faculty Award from the Black Law Students Association. He also spearheaded a collaborative faculty and Seattle University Law Review effort that resulted in the convening of an election reform symposium: ÒWhere 's My Vote? Ð Lessons Learned from Washington State 's Gubernatorial Election.Ó He delivered the Keynote Address for the Legal Foundation of Washington 's 10th Annual Gold mark Award Luncheon. He established a project to assist attorneys and other election monitors to document any instances of voter intimidation during the November 2004 Presidential election. He served as a trainer representing Seattle University School of Law in a program sponsored by ProDerecho, an educational consulting services organization in Mexico City, to train Mexican law professors and other governmental officials to serve as instructors to students in preparation for a national moot court competition based upon the adversarial United States legal model. He works in collaboration with a Professor of Political Science at Whitman College to initiate student research to document discrimination against Latinas/os in the State of Washington that has been incorporated into a State of Latinas/os Report. One of his ultimate goals is the passage of a state voting rights act in the State of Washington. In addition, Professor Avila is working with national civil rights organizations to secure an amendment to the federal Bill of Costs statute to prevent the award of costs to prevailing party defendants in civil rights suits that are meritorious yet unsuccessful. Recent scholarship includes an article dealing with voting discrimination in California that formed the basis of his testimony before a U.S. Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the recent reauthorization and amendment of the federal Voting Rights Act and a response to an article that proposed an interpretation of the Voting Rights Act limiting the effectiveness of the Act.