FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
   
August 10, 2009     

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

Linda Eide Elected President of the National Organization of Bar Counsel

(SEATTLE) — The Washington State Bar Association is proud to announce that Linda B. Eide, senior disciplinary counsel for the WSBA, has been elected president of the National Organization of Bar Counsel (NOBC), a non-profit organization whose members enforce ethics rules that regulate the professional conduct of lawyers practicing law in the United States, Canada, and Australia.  Eide took office on August 1, 2009, at the NOBC’s annual meeting in Chicago. 

Eide is a senior disciplinary counsel and team manager for the Washington State Bar Association Office of Disciplinary Counsel, where she has been employed since 1997. Previously, she spent 12 years in private practice at Skellenger Bender. Eide graduated cum laude from Wheaton College, Massachusetts, and received her law degree from the University of Maine School of Law, where she was an editor of the Law Review. 

Since August 2006, Eide has served as an NOBC officer. As president-elect, she chaired the program committee for the group’s February and July 2009 meetings. As NOBC’s new president, she looks forward to helping the organization’s dedicated and talented membership continue to share information toward its common goal: resolving complaints fairly and efficiently to protect the public and the profession. 

The National Organization of Bar Counsel (NOBC) began in the late 1950s, when disciplinary counsel from around the country began meeting with each other at American Bar Association (ABA) meetings about matters of common concern, such as professional ethics and the unauthorized practice of law. NOBC has provided critical input to the formulation of ABA model rules through its representative in the House of Delegates, as well as through its interaction with the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility. With membership of lawyer regulators from all 50 states and the District of Columbia — in addition to federal agencies such as the Judge Advocate General’s Corps of the United States Army, the Internal Revenue Service, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and the Department of Homeland Security — NOBC is unique as a national organization of agencies and lawyers professionally engaged in the enforcement of legal ethics rules.

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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