FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   

June 2, 2008

Contact: Judith Berrett
Director of Member and Community Relations
206-727-8212; judithb@wsba.org

WSBA Board of Governors to Meet in Vancouver, Washington, June 6

(SEATTLE) — The Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) Board of Governors will hold its next meeting on Friday, June 6, at the Red Lion Hotel at the Quay in Vancouver, Washington. Olympia attorney Kristal Wiitala, who represents members in the Third Congressional District, will welcome the Board to Vancouver. The public meeting will be held from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with a break from noon to 1:30 p.m.

A highlight of each year's June meeting is the election by the Board of Governors of a new president-elect, who will take office as president-elect in September, and begin service as WSBA president in September of the following year. The Board will also elect an at-large governor at the meeting. The three at-large seats on the Board of Governors (one specifically for a member of the Washington Young Lawyers Division) were created in 2001, to ensure representation from underrepresented members of the association, and with the goal of making the Board of Governors a more diverse body.

Members of the Access to Justice (ATJ) Board will join the Board of Governors for lunch. Established by the Washington State Supreme Court in 1994, the ATJ Board's mission is to promote and facilitate equal access to justice in Washington for low- and moderate-income individuals through high-quality legal services. Current chair of the ATJ Board is Daniel Gottlieb, of Seattle, who will present the Access to Justice Board's annual report to the Board of Governors later in the afternoon. The ATJ Board's thirteenth annual statewide Access to Justice Conference will be held at the Red Lion Hotel Friday through Sunday, in conjunction with the WSBA Bar Leaders Conference.

At lunch on Friday, the 75th anniversary of the WSBA will be celebrated with a special cake. Although the roots of the WSBA go back 120 years (in 1888, the last year of the Washington Territory, the Washington Bar Association was formed with 35 lawyers), it was in June 1933 that the Legislature passed the State Bar Act, establishing the Washington State Bar Association as an integrated, or unified, bar association. For more information about the history of the State Bar, see www.wsba.org/info/history.htm.

Douglas Lawrence, chair of the WSBA Board of Governors Judicial Selection Task Force, will present the Task Force's majority and minority reports, and the Board will be asked to support one. Established in June 2006, the Task Force was charged with reviewing all levels of judicial races and providing recommendations to the Board of Governors. The Task Force includes representatives from all levels of Washington courts, the public, the Legislature, the WSBA, and the WSBA Board of Governors. (The question of whether judges should be elected or appointed is a long-standing one; the debate in Washington began at the State's Constitutional Convention in 1889 and continues to this day.) The majority report recommends that the manner in which judges are selected be changed from election to a commission selection system. The minority report favors retention of the current election system. For the majority report, see www.wsba.org/judicialselectioncommitteemajorityreportrevised.pdf. For the minority report, see www.wsba.org/judicialselectiontaskforceminorityreport914071.pdf. Additionally, see the April 2008 issue of Bar News, available at www.wsba.org/media/publications/barnews/april08.htm, for articles about this issue.

In other business, the Board will select four members to serve in the American Bar Association's House of Delegates. The ABA is the largest voluntary professional association in the world. Seattle attorney William Neukom currently serves as ABA president.

President of the Washington Young Lawyers Division (WYLD) Mark O'Halloran, of Mercer Island, will report on the WYLD's recent activities and accomplishments. The meeting will conclude with the governors' and liaisons' forums, during which governors and others in attendance may bring non-agenda items to the attention of the Board.

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 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 president is Stanley A. Bastian, of Wenatchee. The 2007-2008 president-elect is Mark A. Johnson, of Seattle, and the immediate past-president is Ellen Conedera Dial, of Seattle. 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 its numerous standing committees; 26 sections; and a Young Lawyers Division, with its many committees.

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