FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 29, 2009      

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

James Swift Receives Local Hero Award

(SEATTLE) — The Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) announces that it has presented Richland attorney James Swift with its Local Hero Award. The Local Hero Award is presented by the WSBA Board of Governors as it travels around the state to  lawyers who have made noteworthy contributions to their communities. The WSBA Board of Governors met in Richland on April 24–25. WSBA President Mark Johnson presented the award at a reception on April 24, with members of the Board of Governors, members of the local bench and bar, and other guests in attendance.

Earlier in his career, Swift was a judge advocate general with the United States Air Force, and also served as an attorney with the Department of Defense. After retiring from the Department of Defense, Swift worked for three years as a legal benefits advisor for Adult Protective Services, where he recognized a need for a guardianship monitoring program in Benton and Franklin counties. Since leaving Adult Protective Services in 2008, he has volunteered 30 to 40 hours a month to establish a guardianship monitoring program that protects vulnerable individuals in the Benton and Franklin counties’ court system.

Currently, Swift serves as a file reviewer in the monitoring program. He is also developing a training program to teach others how to perform guardianship monitoring services on a volunteer basis.

“[Swift’s] efforts remain unsung and virtually invisible to those in all but a small sector of the legal community,” wrote Kenneth A. Miller, president of the Benton and Franklin Counties Bar Association, in his nomination letter. “The BFCBA appreciates the efforts of Mr. Swift and asks that the Washington State Bar recognize him as a local hero in our community.”

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 32,700 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. The president-elect is Salvador A. Mungia, of Tacoma, 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.

# # #