ROBERT W. NIXON, General Counsel

Service has been the goal of the Office of General Counsel (OGC) during the past quinquennium—service to the General Conference, the North American Division, most of the other church entities located in the General Conference complex, and other world organizations that seek counsel from the OGC.

OGC lawyers give general legal counsel to these entities on a wide range of subjects. When the telephone rings, we give advice. When a draft contract tumbles out of an intermail envelope, we review it. Increasingly, church administrative offices and institutions outside North America consult with the OGC on legal issues.

Beyond these general matters, staff lawyers provide specialized legal services in their areas of expertise. Public Affairs and Religious Liberty directors call for special help in defending church members whose jobs are threatened because they cannot work on Sabbath. Church employers call when they need help in getting visas for employees coming to the United States from other countries. Tax lawyers and CPAs call to consult on income, gift, and estate tax issues. In complex or distant cases, staff lawyers frequently serve as liaisons with outside counsel. They participate in international conferences promoting religious freedom, and counsel members and their lawyers confronted by faith-based religious discrimination or other legal challenges.

A major contribution of staff lawyers during the past quinquennium was their participation in the division and GC institutional surveys. OGC lawyers focused on the survey section reviewing corporate and legal matters, such as how the church entity handles basic legal issues and what procedures they have instituted to safeguard the church and its assets.

OGC lawyers also practice preventive law, educating church administrators about current legal opinions, new laws, and trends in government policy and procedure.

The five associate general counsels and their areas of emphasis are:

Walter E. Carson, litigation, parliamentary procedure, contracts, intellectual property (copyright and trademark), and corporate law. He works with the General Conference Corporation and represents the General Conference in a variety of litigation settings. He is also an accredited specialist in parliamentary procedure.

Thomas E. Wetmore, pension, employee benefits, and tax law. He represents the General Conference and North American Division at conferences and work groups and at government agencies on issues involving his practice areas.

Lisa Saveikis Burrow, employment, immigration, and sexual misconduct. She works closely with Human Resource Services in both a preventive and responsive capacity, and with the Secretariat in obtaining temporary work authorization and permanent residence for employees from other countries. These services also are available to other church entities. In addition, she drafts employment-related policies and revisions for inclusion in the General Conference and North American Working Policy books.

Mitchell A. Tyner, church-state law and religious liberty litigation. He has made many presentations at legal and religious liberty conferences during the past five years and has represented scores of church members who suffer employment discrimination because of their faithful Sabbath observance.

O. Richard Caldwell, trusts, estates, and tax law. An associate since 1993, he is also a certified public accountant and has an M.B.A. and LL.M. (in taxation). Caldwell represents the General Conference Trust Services Department and the General Conference Auditing Service on a variety of tax and legal issues and serves as their legal liaison on litigation matters. He also consults with donors, legal counsel, and financial advisors on major current and deferred gift and other tax issues.

Robert W. Nixon has served as general counsel since 1993. In addition to directing the overall work of the OGC, Nixon works closely with General Conference and North American Division administrators and has a continuing interest in religious liberty, communication, and intellectual property issues.

During the next quinquennium the OGC will celebrate the tenth anniversary of operating under a reorganized system in which staff lawyers work solely for the church with the goal of providing basic, quality legal services at a relatively low cost. The general counsel has proposed that General Conference administration celebrate that event by beginning a comprehensive review of the program and then making necessary adjustments to ensure long-term, quality legal services for the world church in this increasingly complex and litigious age.