Successful partnership

Mike Swanson

Theresa Whitlock, then a paralegal, paid for her first date with the

attorney she worked for, Bill O’Hare.

They had a few drinks at Hotel Laguna, followed by a romantic

dinner at Denny’s.

“I left my wallet at the office that night,” Bill said.

That was more than 20 years ago. Nowadays Bill and Theresa O’Hare

don’t have to worry about the check.

As the managing partner of Snell and Wilmer in Irvine,

representing the defendant sued by electronics giant Samsung for

nearly $12 million, Bill earned a March 28 judgment of $5.7 million

awarded to his client, San Clemente-based Advanced MP Technology, in

a countersuit.

While Bill essentially lived in San Francisco during the two-month

trial, Theresa slaved away with SchoolPower and the Laguna Beach

Education Endowment and Capital Fund, trying to find ways to raise

money in response to the school budget crisis. A member of the

Endowment and Capital Fund’s board of trustees, Theresa and her

colleagues unanimously agreed to give $700,000 to the district for

the 2003-04 school year on April 11.

Longtime friend, neighbor and Board of Education Clerk El Hathaway

said Bill is adept at keeping his priorities straight.

“Once he’s in his house, you’d never know how busy he is. He keeps

his work at work, and when he gets home, he’s just a dad and a

husband.”

Hathaway gave Theresa, who’s also involved with the PTA, the

School Bond Advisory Board and spends at least two days a week in the

classroom as an aide, equal praise.

“I would classify Theresa as the most involved parent in our

system,” he said. “This woman is a dynamo.”

Bill called Hathaway’s classification an understatement.

And Hathaway said Bill was “probably the smartest guy I know.”

Already involved in a juvenile crime diversion program called

Shortstop, which attempts to break the cycle of children 11 through

17 who’ve had trouble with the law, Bill is now working on a

mentoring program for Santa Ana High School girls. While both Bill

and Theresa volunteer their time to causes outside their home, Billy

and Brendan still attract the lion’s share of their attention.

Theresa said during Bill’s trial, Brendan said matter-of-factly, “I’m

getting sick of dad being gone.”

When visiting on weekends, however, Bill paint-balled and

rock-climbed with Brendan and caught Billy in “Footloose,” a school

play at the high school.

Jim Hammersmith, the former scoutmaster of the boy scout group

Bill and Billy were members of, described Billy as a 15-year-old

version of Bill.

“Billy’s outgoing and has a broad interest base like Bill,”

Hammersmith said.

A couple that is used to making crucial decisions involving the

community and delivering stressful closing arguments in

multi-million-dollar court cases will face a new stressor come May 9

-- a 16-year-old son.

Judging by the demeanor of both Bill and Theresa O’Hare, it’s

unlikely that anything is capable of cracking their easygoing shells.

“It’s the pair that makes them so successful from a professional,

social and parental perspective,” Hathaway said. “You couldn’t write

a complete story about one of them without mentioning the other.”