FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 4, 2008

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

The Honorable Eugene Anderson Receives Lifetime Service Award

(SEATTLE) — The Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) announces that the Honorable Eugene Anderson will be honored with the 2008 Lifetime Service Award. This is a special award given for a lifetime of service to the WSBA and the public, and is given only when there is someone especially deserving of this recognition. 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.

Judge Anderson was elected as a part-time district court judge for Skagit County in 1959. In 1983, when the courts of Anacortes, Mount Vernon, and Sedro-Woolley combined into one county court, he became a full-time judge, retiring in 1994 as the longest-serving district court judge in the state.

Judge Anderson served on the District and Municipal Court Judges’ Association Education Committee and its Civil Benchbook Committee; served as a member of the Washington State Judicial Ethics Advisory Board; and has lectured at the Washington State Judicial Training Conference and the Washington State Court Administrators’ Conference. In addition, he was involved for 41 years with the WSBA Committee of Bar Examiners, and created the “Ten Commandments of Grading,” which have been a fixture of bar examiner training sessions for over 20 years. Over the years, he has prepared and graded questions, chaired the committee, screened examiners’ questions, and overseen the professional responsibility portion of the bar exam.

“Judge Anderson has continued to provide the same high level of energy, integrity, enthusiasm, and leadership through the years,” wrote Joseph Nappi Jr., chair of the Committee of Bar Examiners. “All of us on the Executive Committee are impressed by Judge Anderson’s... ability to see both the big picture and many smaller details. He consistently urges us to higher levels.”

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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