D. Joe Willis, a shareholder in the Central Oregon office of regional law firm Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt, recently attended the annual National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws NCCUSL also known as the Uniform Law Conference as Chair of the Drafting Committee on the Uniform Protection of Genetic Information in Employment Act. The Conference approved the Act and it will now be forwarded to all fifty states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and United States Virgin Islands with a recommendation that they all adopt it into law.

In 2005, Willis was appointed as chair of the NCCUSL Drafting Committee for this Act. He served as Oregon Commissioner to the National Conference on Uniform State Laws from 1978-82, was reappointed in 1986, and has since been honored with a lifetime membership.  Willis also served on the drafting committee that rewrote the first amendments to the Uniform Securities Act and the committee that wrote the Model Termination of Employment Act, the Uniform Punitive Damages Act, the Uniform Rules of Evidence, and the Uniform Child Witness Testimony by Alternative Methods Act.

The Uniform Law Conference, now 118 years old, provides states with nonpartisan, well-conceived and well-drafted legislation that brings clarity and stability to critical areas of the law.  NCCUSL is made up of volunteer lawyers including judges, private practitioners, lawyers in public service, legislators and law professors appointed by either the governors or legislators of the various states. They all serve without pay and many serve without even being reimbursed for their own expenses incurred. NCCUSL’s work supports the federal system and facilitates the movement of individuals and the business of organizations with rules that are consistent from state to state.