FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 14, 2009

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

J. Donald Curran Receives 2009 President’s Award

(SEATTLE) — The Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) announces that J. Donald Curran, of Spokane, is a recipient of the 2009 President’s Award. The President’s Award is given annually by the current WSBA president in recognition of special accomplishment or service to the WSBA during the president’s term; Seattle attorney Lembhard G. Howell is also being honored with this year’s President’s Award. Curran’s award is presented “in recognition of a career defined by impeccable integrity, professionalism, judgment, and ability.” WSBA President Mark Johnson will present the award at the President’s Dinner, to be held on September 23, 2009.

Curran received his undergraduate degree from Gonzaga University and his law degree from Gonzaga University School of Law. In 1961, he formed a partnership with Joseph P. Delay, which became the firm of Delay, Curran, Thompson, Pontarolo & Walker, P.S. His practice is exclusively plaintiff's’ personal injury and representing lawyers with disciplinary problems. Curran will celebrate his fiftieth year in practice in 2010.

Throughout his career, Curran has been an active member of the WSBA. He served on the WSBA Board of Governors from 1988–1991, is a former member and past-chair of the WSBA Disciplinary Board, and has also served as a hearing officer in disciplinary cases. He is a past-chair of the WSBA Character and Fitness Committee and was a member of the 2001 WSBA Task Force on Lawyer Discipline, which led to the adoption of the Rules for Enforcement of Lawyer Conduct (ELCs). He is a former member of the WSBA Professionalism Committee and Judicial Recommendation Committee, and currently serves on the WSBA Rules of Professional Conduct Committee.

Curran has also served as president of the Washington State Trial Lawyers’ Association (now the Washington State Association for Justice) and the Spokane County Bar Association. A frequent lecturer, he has for the past three years co-chaired the WSBA annual two-day “Law of Lawyering” seminar.

Curran also has a continuing legacy of public service and pro bono work. Since 1993, Curran has served as a volunteer pro bono attorney for AIDS Network and Spokane County Health District AIDS Program, advising AIDS victims on the need for and preparation of wills, durable powers of attorney, and living wills. “There is nothing more satisfying than using my legal abilities to help someone in need,” he said of his service. “They are grateful for the help, I am grateful for the opportunity to have helped them, and when we part company, they always have a positive impression of lawyers.”

In 1996, Curran received the Washington State Bar Association Lifetime Service Award. He has also received professionalism awards from the WSBA Young Lawyers Division, the Spokane County Bar Association, and the Washington State Trial Lawyers Association. He is an invited member to the American College of Trial Lawyers and, from 1993 to the present, has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America and in Spokane's “Best Lawyers.”

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 33,200 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, one of whom represents the Young Lawyers Division. The president is Mark A. Johnson, of Seattle. 2008-2009 president-elect is Salvador A. Mungia, of Tacoma; 2009-2010 president-elect is Steven G. Toole, of Bellevue; and the immediate past-president is Stanley A. Bastian, of Wenatchee. 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, 27 sections, and a Young Lawyers Division with its many committees.

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