FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
   
August 1, 2008     

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

WSBA Governor Russell M. Aoki Elected Treasurer for 2008-09

(SEATTLE) — The Washington State Bar Association is pleased to announce that First District Governor Russell M. Aoki has been elected WSBA treasurer for 2008-09. As treasurer, he will serve as chair of the WSBA Budget and Audit Committee. Aoki was elected at the Board of Governors meeting held on July 25-26, 2008, in Walla Walla.

Russell Aoki is the managing partner of Aoki Sakamoto Grant LLP of Seattle. His practice emphasizes criminal defense and business litigation. During his career, Aoki has served as judge pro tem, mediator, and arbitrator. He has been trial counsel in a number of well-publicized matters. He was named one of the top 25 criminal defense attorneys in Washington by Washington Law & Politics in 2007, and one of the top criminal defense attorneys in Seattle by Seattle Magazine in 2007.

Aoki was a member of the United States District Court's Technology Working Group for the Western District of Washington. He is an frequent speaker on technology support and has presented on the use of technology for criminal cases before representatives of the Ninth, Second, and Sixth Circuit Courts of Appeals; the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia; and federal court-appointed defense counsel. He regularly serves as the Federal Court-appointed coordinating discovery attorney for defense counsel on large racketeering and fraud prosecutions. He is the author of "Database Defense," Law Technology News, January 2007.

In addition to his current service as a governor on the WSBA Board of Governors, Aoki is the Washington State Supreme Court's appointee to the Office of Public Defense Advisory Committee. He is the past board president of Northwest Defender Association, past president of the Asian Bar Association of Washington, and a past trustee of the King County Bar Association. 

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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