FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
   
October 26, 2009     

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

Colleen Harrington Receives Local Hero Award

(SEATTLE) — The Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) announces that it has presented Pullman attorney Colleen Harrington with its Local Hero Award. The Local Hero Award is presented by the WSBA Board of Governors as it travels around the state to those who have made noteworthy contributions to their communities on behalf of the profession. The WSBA Board of Governors met in Pullman on October 23-24. WSBA President Salvador Mungia presented the award at a special reception, with members of the Board of Governors, members of the local bench and bar, and other guests in attendance.

Harrington is being recognized for her dedication to pro bono service, particularly with Whitman County Legal Services. Currently, she is working with Whitman County Legal Services and Whitman County Superior Court to develop and implement a courthouse facilitator program for low- or no-income individuals. She has participated in pro bono advice clinics at the courthouse as well as other pro bono counseling, and earlier this year represented a client in a contested divorce trial, donating nearly 50 pro bono hours to that case alone.

Harrington is also active with the WSBA. She is a past chair of the WSBA Litigation Section, serves on the Local Rules Task Force, and has assisted in writing WSBA publications such as the Washington Civil Trial and Evidence Manual and Washington Civil Procedure Deskbook.

Harrington received her undergraduate degree from Washington State University and her law degree from the University of San Francisco. She is currently in private practice with the firm of Irwin, Myklebust, Savage & Brown, P.S. She serves as president of the Whitman County Bar Association, as a judge pro tempore for Whitman County District Court, and has been an adjunct professor at University of Idaho Law School for the past 12 years.

An active member of her local community, Harrington also serves on the board of directors for the Pullman Chamber of Commerce and as president of the Whitman County Humane Society.

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 33,500 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 Salvador A. Mungia, of Tacoma. The president-elect is Steven G. Toole, of Bellevue, and the immediate past-president is Mark A. Johnson, 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, 27 sections, and a Young Lawyers Division with its many committees.

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