June 2008

Find out what your fellow attorneys are up to. See www.wsba.org/media/¬publications/countynewsletters.htm for links to bar publications throughout the state. If you would like to contribute to Around the State on behalf of your county, minority, or specialty bar organization, or if you have a law-related item of interest, send your submissions to aroundthestate@wsba.org.

Local Hero Honored

On March 7, the WSBA Local Hero Award was presented to Thomas B. Vertetis in recognition of his efforts in supporting pro bono programs in his community. The Local Hero Award is presented to lawyers who have made noteworthy contributions to their communities. The award was presented by WSBA President Stan Bastian at a reception with WSBA Tacoma-Pierce County Bar Association members and officers of the Kitsap County Bar Association.

Mr. Vertetis volunteers his time regularly to his community. He is a weekly tutor for the McCarver Elementary School Werlin Reading Program. Mr. Vertetis was instrumental in creating the concept and finding the initial sponsorship and committee support for last year’s first annual “Art for Equal Justice” fundraiser, held at the Tacoma Art Museum. As a pro bono attorney, Mr. Vertetis encouraged his firm to commit to sponsorship and staffing of one evening per month at the Tacoma-Pierce County Bar Foundation Neighborhood Legal Clinic, and continues to volunteer to help low-income clients.

WSBA Board Holds Marriage and the Law Forums

The WSBA Board of Governors presented two forums to discuss marriage and the law, same-sex marriage, and domestic partnerships. Combined, 140 people attended the March 7 forum held at the UW campus in Tacoma and the April 25 forum in Spokane at Gonzaga University.

Gonzaga University Report
by Spencer Nussbaum, 3L

Another semester has come and gone at Gonzaga University School of Law. In August 2007, we were excited to welcome the new class of 1Ls, one of the school’s strongest entering classes and one of the most diverse. The school hosted a number of events in the fall, one of which was the annual celebration of the Red Mass for the legal profession. The Honorable Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain, of the United States Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, gave the reflection. This year’s Distinguished Judicial Service Award was presented to the Honorable Neal Q. Rielly, of the Spokane County Superior Court. Judge Rielly has a distinguished record of outstanding service to the community.

Another signature event at the law school is the annual Luvera Lecture, held on October 4, 2007. The guest lecturer was Colonel William A. Gunn, U.S. Air Force chief defense counsel of the Department of Defense of Military Commissions. Colonel Gunn’s address was entitled “Defending the Guantanamo Detainees: Courage, Public Service, and the Rule of Law.” Colonel Gunn shared his experiences and personal reflections about his work directing the defense effort for detainees brought before military commissions at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Our law school and community continue to work together to promote diversity by collaborating with the WSBA and the Spokane County Bar Association to present our annual “Building Bridges,” a week-long event that joins together student groups such as the Gay-Straight Alliance, the Hispanic Law Caucus, the Reuben J. Clark Law Society, the Multicultural Law Caucus, the Student Diversity Committee, the Women’s Law Caucus, and members of the community to present a number of speakers on various topics of interest. The week ended with a day-long CLE entitled “Thinking Strategically about Culture and Diversity,” followed by the SCBA’s presentation of the Carl Maxey Diversity Fund Scholarship to first-year student Kimberly Williams and second-year student Hector Quiroga.

Awareness was also the focus of numerous presentations, including the Federalist Society’s sponsorship of New York Times best-selling author Dinesh D’Souza, who shared his views about the recent United States Supreme Court decision on consideration of race in public schools. Keith McHenry gave a presentation about the movement called “Food Not Bombs,” promoted by Amnesty International. Mr. McHenry spoke of the global movement’s history and mission of sharing food with the hungry and striving for peace and social justice. The Health Law Society presented Sandy Manfred, of the local Mental Health Therapeutic Court, who spoke on emerging efforts to focus on treatment of defendants with mental illnesses. A food drive was sponsored by Programs After Dark (PAD), which resulted in providing Thanksgiving dinners to 46 families in need. Other topics included the Endangered Species Act, women in the law, the judicial election process, medical marijuana laws, and immigration assimilation.

Finally, the charity and generosity of our student body continues to pour out for two of our 3L students who are coping with serious illnesses. The SBA raised $1,000 to help a classmate and her family remain close to the UW Medical Center, where she is undergoing treatment for ovarian cancer. Blood and bone-marrow registry drives were planned in support of a classmate diagnosed with leukemia and in need of a bone-marrow transplant. Our hearts go out to our friends, and we pray for their swift and complete recovery.

As this brief recap shows, Gonzaga University School of Law is an institution that is passionate about its students and deeply involved in the life of the surrounding community. We are excited about the future, and grateful to our alumni and friends for their continuing support.

Sexual Violence Law Center Opens in Seattle

The Sexual Violence Law Center (SVLC), formerly the legal program of the Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs, has opened in Seattle. SVLC was founded in January 2008 by Catherine A. Carroll and Kelly O’Connell, attorneys focusing on training and consultation on sexual-violence legal issues. SVLC works with survivors, the legal community, tribal governments, and service agencies within Washington to advance the legal rights of sexual-assault victims. The goal of SVLC is to improve the legal response to survivors of sexual violence through limited direct services, training, technical assistance, and the provision of resource materials to survivors, rape crisis center advocates, and attorneys throughout Washington. For information, contact SVLC at 206-624-0621 or e-mail ¬catherine@wcsap.org or kelly@wcsap.org.

2005-2006 WSBA President S. Brooke Taylor Sworn In as Judge

Judge S. Brooke Taylor was sworn in as Clallam County’s third Superior Court judge in January, the first time in history that the county has had three such judges. Judge Taylor served as 2005–2006 WSBA president.

Spokane County Bar News

Despite being buried in snow most of the winter, the Spokane Bar persevered. The Spokane County Bar Association’s annual holiday auction to benefit its Volunteer Lawyer Program was a resounding success and a lot of fun.

In January, the SCBA began celebrating its 100th year of service. We are sponsoring a year of activities that are fun and highlight the public service provided by local attorneys. Our bi-monthly newsletter, Calendar Call (which is available online at www.wsba.org), has been running a “Who’s Who?” section of members’ photos from past pictorial directories. It’s been fun seeing what some attorneys looked like with ’70’s hair (or even hair at all) and mutton chops!

Bill and Bevan Maxey were instrumental in arranging for University of Washington professor Dr. Quintard Taylor to speak at the SCBA’s Diversity Luncheon in February. His lecture on “Freedom’s Frontier: African Americans in Spokane and the Inland Empire 1880–1970” was an interesting and informative presentation before a packed house.

Bill Hyslop received the Smithmoore P. Meyers Professionalism Award in March. It was a special evening, highlighted by singing “Happy Birthday” to Smitty and his lovely wife, Sandi. Bill is a former WSBA governor. April brought a wine tasting at Nodland Cellars, where local attorney Tim Nodland and his wife, Tracy, shared their expertise and fine wine to help support our bar and celebrate our centennial. At the April BOG meeting in Spokane, WSBA President Stan Bastian presented a resolution commemorating the SCBA’s centennial and presented Local Hero awards to Pat Johnson and Larry Haskell.

If you ran Bloomsday in May, perhaps you saw SCBA members running/walking/gasping on the course while wearing their blue shirts proclaiming the SCBA’s 100 years of service.

Upcoming centennial events include: SCBA’s annual golf tournament on June 27, a family picnic in July, and a CLE-cruise on beautiful Lake Coeur d’Alene on August 22. Thanks to the efforts of Bev Anderson of Winston Cashatt and the Blue Spark, the SCBA will be holding a fundraiser for the VLP in September; and in November, the SCBA will be collecting canned food for our local food banks with collection barrels at the courthouses and at Gonzaga’s law school.

Law Bits and Briefs

Kelly Walsh, an associate with Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt’s Vancouver, Washington, office, was honored by the Vancouver Business Journal as a recipient of the paper’s Accomplished and Under 40 award last November.

James F. Nagle has published 1948 — The Crossroads Year. It is available through Amazon.com.

Jeffrey A. Beaver, of Graham & Dunn in Seattle, was re-appointed in December to another term as co-chair of the American Bar Association’s Section of Litigation; Condemnation, Zoning and Land Use Committee.

In November, Regina Vogel Culbert, of Merchant & Gould in Seattle, was elected to the Board of Directors of the Washington Lawyers for the Arts. Washington Lawyers for the Arts is a nonprofit service organization dedicated to supporting the arts in Washington state by creating alliances and making legal resources accessible to artists and arts organizations of all disciplines.

James R. Ellis, retired managing partner of Preston Gates & Ellis LLP, Seattle (now the firm of K&L Gates), received the Outstanding Service Award from the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation in February.

Clark County District Court Judge James P. Swanger has been selected as co-recipient of the 2008 Street Law Educator of the Year award; he received his well-earned award in April in Washington, D.C.

Irvin W. Sandman, chair of Graham & Dunn’s Hospitality Industry Group, was named the 2008 recipient of the Anthony G. Marshall Hospitality Law Award, during the Sixth Annual Hospitality Law Conference in Houston, Texas, in February.

At a ceremony in April, the Law Women’s Caucus honored two distinguished alumnae, the Honorable Betty B. Fletcher, United States Senior Circuit judge, Ninth Circuit, UW class of 1956, and Brenda Williams, UW class of 1997, of The Defender Association, for outstanding contributions to women in the law.

The Outreach Committee of the Law Librarians of Puget Sound has awarded the 2008 Community Access to Legal Information Grant to the Northwest Justice Project (NJP). NJP used the $500 grant to fund the production of marketing materials for the Washington LawHelp website (www.washingtonlawhelp.org). Washington LawHelp is dedicated to educating the public on legal issues affecting low-income individuals in Washington state as well as providing self-help materials to pro se litigants.

The American Bar Association Criminal Justice Section has named its Minister of Justice Award in honor of the late King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng. According to the section: “He [Maleng] was a very effective and, in many ways, a tough prosecutor, being particularly protective of those he viewed as vulnerable, creating special prosecutorial units to deal with child abuse, sexual assault and domestic violence.” In 2006, Norm Maleng was given the section’s Minister of Justice Award recognizing his embodiment of the principles enunciated in the ABA Standards for Criminal Justice, Prosecution Function, particularly: “The duty of the prosecutor is to seek justice, not merely to convict.”

At their Lincoln Day Banquet in February, WSBA Governor Salvador A. Mungia received the Tacoma-Pierce County Bar Association’s Bertha M. Snell Award for a lawyer who displays the qualities of tenacity in overcoming adversity and obstacles in his/her quest to become a lawyer or as a lawyer in practice. Bertha M. Snell, Washington’s first woman lawyer, signed the original articles of incorporation of the Tacoma-Pierce County Bar Association in 1907. Ms. Snell was a member of TPCBA until her death at the age of 89 in 1957.

Beverly A. Benka has been appointed clerk of the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Washington. Ms. Benka previously served as a staff attorney for the Chapter 13 Trustee for the Eastern District of Washington and as a law clerk to Judge John M. Klobucher. Ms. Benka is a graduate of Gonzaga University School of Law.

Timothy J. Parker, a shareholder in the firm of Carney Badley Spellman, P.S. in Seattle, was inducted as a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers at a ceremony during the 2008 spring meeting of the College in Tucson, Arizona.

Lane Powell shareholder Michael “Mick” Fleming was elected as 2008 chairman of the board for the Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Puget Sound, after having been an active board member for seven years.

On March 31, Anne Bremner, a partner in the law firm Stafford Frey Cooper, became the first woman from Washington to be inducted into the International Academy of Trial Lawyers.

In April, Jennifer K. Wyatt, an attorney in the Seattle office of Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt, was appointed to chair the Women in the Profession Committee (WIPC) of the American Bar Association Young Lawyers Division (ABA-YLD). The ABA-YLD is the ABA’s largest entity, composed of approximately 147,000 members. In addition, Wyatt was also appointed to sit on the ABA-YLD’s Diversity Committee.