FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
   
June 23, 2008      

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

Brian Comstock Elected 8th District Governor

(SEATTLE) — The WSBA is pleased to announce that Bellevue attorney Brian L. Comstock has been elected governor for the eighth congressional district. At the conclusion of the Board of Governors meeting in September 2008, Comstock will assume the seat currently held by Douglas C. Lawrence for a three-year term.

Comstock received his bachelor’s degree magna cum laude from the University of Washington. Following a two-year tour of duty as an officer of the U.S. Army Counter-Intelligence Corps, he received his law degree from Harvard Law School. Returning to Seattle, he entered private practice with Roberts & Shefelman, eventually becoming its managing partner, and later headed the business practice group at Short Cressman & Burgess. From 2004–2006, he taught as an adjunct professor at the Seattle University School of Law and the Albers School of Business and Finance, and set up a new course for third-year law students entitled Advising Private Companies. In 2006, he and his son, John L. Comstock, formed The Comstock Law Firm, PLLC, in Bellevue; their practice emphasizes business with a focus on taxation and securities.

Comstock has been active in professional organizations and pursuits including the business, securities, and tax sections of the American Bar Association and Washington State Bar Association; he has also served as a trustee of the King County Bar Association. He is a member of Mercer Island Rotary and the Board of Directors of Northwest Center, and in 2006, he was appointed by Governor Christine Gregoire as a commissioner of the Washington State Lottery.  

During his term of service on the Board of Governors, Comstock will celebrate 50 years of membership in the WSBA; he will be the first sitting member of the Board of Governors to do so.

“As Eighth District Governor, my goals will be to enhance WSBA services benefiting you as a practicing attorney and advance the interests of our profession and service to the community,” wrote Comstock. “I view serving on the Board of Governors as an opportunity to bring about desired change and achieve new goals. We have an outstanding state bar association, but much remains to be done to make us the very best at serving our members and the community at large.”

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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