FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 4, 2008     

Contact: Stephanie Perry
Communications Specialist/Website Editor
206-733-5932; stephaniep@wsba.org

Marcine Anderson Receives Excellence in Diversity Award

(SEATTLE) — The Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) announces that Seattle attorney and past WSBA governor Marcine Anderson will be honored with the 2008 Excellence in Diversity Award, presented to a lawyer, law firm, or law-related group that has made a significant contribution to diversity in the legal profession's employment of ethnic minorities, women, and persons with disabilities. WSBA President Stan Bastian will present the award at the WSBA Annual Awards Dinner, to be held on September 18, 2008, at the Grand Hyatt Seattle Hotel.

Anderson received her bachelor's degree and a Certificate in Ethnic Studies from the University of Oregon and her law degree from Suffolk University Law School in Boston, Massachusetts. She is currently a senior deputy prosecuting attorney in the civil division of the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office with a technology law practice area involving software licensing, telecommunications, and cable television regulation. She has been a Reginald Heber Smith Community Lawyer Fellow, a law clerk for U.S. Magistrate Judge Joyce London Alexander, and an assistant general counsel and special assistant to the deputy general manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. She has also served as a judge pro tempore for the King County District Court since 1998.

Anderson has been active on many boards and committees within the WSBA. She has served on the Board of Bar Examiners, and while on the Board of Governors from 2004-2007, she served on the Board of Governors Committee for Diversity, the Budget and Audit Committee, the Legislative Committee, and the Long-Range Planning and Technology Steering Committee. She currently serves as a board member of the WSBA Leadership Institute, and as a trustee and treasurer for the Washington State Bar Foundation.

Anderson has also volunteered her time in various community activities. She serves on the banquet committee of the Japanese American Citizens' League, and has volunteered at the International District Legal Clinic since it was opened by the Asian Bar Association of Washington in 1995. 

"[Anderson] has made a significant contribution to diversity in the legal profession by supporting and encouraging minority attorneys to reach for positions of leadership that provide the foundation for success as an attorney," wrote Brenda Williams, current member of the WSBA Board of Governors and supervising attorney at the Tribal Court Public Defense Clinic a the University of Washington School of Law. "She provides a tangible example of majority bar leadership for members of the minority bars to emulate."

About the Washington State Bar Association
The WSBA is part of the judicial branch, exercising a governmental function authorized by the Washington State Supreme Court to license the state's 32,600 lawyers. The WSBA both regulates lawyers under the authority of the Court and serves its members as a professional association – all without public funding. As a regulatory agency, the WSBA administers the bar admission process, including the bar exam; provides record-keeping and licensing functions; and administers the lawyer-discipline system. As a professional association, the WSBA provides continuing legal education for attorneys, in addition to numerous other educational and member-service activities.
 
The governance of the WSBA is vested in its 14-person Board of Governors. There are three governors from the seventh congressional district; one from each of the other eight districts; and three at-large members, one of whom represents the Young Lawyers Division. The 2007-2008 president is Stanley A. Bastian, of Wenatchee. The 2007-2008 president-elect is Mark A. Johnson, of Seattle, the immediate past-president is Ellen Conedera Dial, of Seattle, and the 2008-09 president-elect is Salvador A. Mungia, of Tacoma. The Board meets regularly (every six weeks) at various locations around the state, and its meetings are open to the public. Much of the work of the Bar is carried out through numerous standing committees; 26 sections; and a Young Lawyers Division, with its many committees.

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