Compassion & Choices Attorney Honored for Diversity Work
The Oregon State Bar selects Jonathan Patterson for their 2018 President’s Diversity & Inclusion Award.
Dec 6, 2018
In November, Compassion & Choices Staff Attorney Jonathan Patterson received the Oregon State Bar (OSB) President’s Diversity & Inclusion Award. According to the OSB's website, the award "recognizes members who have made significant contributions to the goal of increasing minority representation in the legal profession."
An integral member of the Compassion & Choices legal team, which works on behalf of individuals and their families across the country to protect end-of-life liberty, Jonathan helps ensure that people receive the care they want and are in charge of their options as they near the end of their lives.
He also serves as the current chair of the OSB Advisory Committee on Diversity and Inclusion, and was past-chair of the OSB Diversity Section. In these positions, he used his experience as an attorney in “movement law” to speak on Continuing Legal Education panels. Jonathan also spent three years as president of Oregon’s chapter of the National Bar Association (NBA) and currently serves on its national board. There, he led the effort to create the NBA LGBTQ Division and serves as its inaugural chairperson.
Jonathan’s efforts have also exposed the work of Compassion & Choices to other attorneys, including those from a law firm that donated over a million dollars in free legal assistance by representing Compassion & Choices’ first legal client of color, Ana Romero. Romero, the widow of Juan Fernando Romero, was sued by his family to take away her authority to make healthcare decisions for him when he fell ill. In March 2018, a judge ruled she was rightfully in control of his medical care.
Jonathan's groundbreaking work at the Oregon State Bar, for the National Bar Association and in the legal community as a whole supplements his efforts at Compassion & Choices to protect the healthcare decision-making rights of all Americans.
