The Board of Governors is the WSBA's governing body directed by the Washington Supreme Court to determine the general policies of the Bar and approve its budget annually. The Board consists of the president, president-elect, immediate past president, members elected from each of the state's congressional districts and three at-large members.
The Board typically meets six times each year at locations across the state. Except for executive sessions, Board meetings are open to the public. The Board has several committees, and governors serve as liaisons to WSBA committees.
Hunter M. Abell | President (2023-2024)
Hunter M. Abell was elected to fill an at-large diversity position on the Board of Governors in
2019 and elected by the Board of Governors as president-elect in 2022. Abell is a member at the Seattle office of Williams Kastner. He is originally from Eastern Washington, where he was raised on a ranch in rural Ferry County. A graduate of the
College of William & Mary, Abell attended Gonzaga University School of Law and received an LL.M. at Georgetown University Law Center. Before joining Williams Kastner, he served as a JAG officer with the U.S. Navy, and is currently a commander
in the U.S. Navy Reserve. Abell previously served as chair of the WSBA Professionalism Committee and Indian Law Section. When not in the office, he enjoys hiking, fishing, and playing with his two young daughters, Libby, 9, and Wynsome, 7.
Email:habell@williamskastner.com
Sunitha Anjilvel | President-Elect, (2023-2024)
Sunitha Anjilvel was reelected to the Board of Governors in 2021. She has practiced family law
and estate planning in the Pacific Northwest since 2008. Since her first admission to practice law in 1990, Anjilvel has practiced in a variety of courts in Canada, California, and Washington in family law, criminal law, and civil litigation.
In 2005, she served as director of a bipartisan campaign to support a redistricting reform initiative on California’s statewide ballot. She is committed to social justice and currently is a member of the WSBA Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Council and a director on the Board of Domestic Relations Attorneys of Washington (DRAW). Anjilvel has also volunteered for the Kinship Care Project and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. She has a B.A. from McGill University and a J.D. from
Dalhousie Law School. She is licensed to practice law in Washington and California.
Email: sunitha@amlawseattle.com
Daniel D. Clark | Immediate Past President (2023-2024)
Dan Clark was first elected by the Board of Governors as president-elect
in 2021 and served on the Board of Governors as the District 4 Governor from July 2017 to September 2022. He was elected as WSBA treasurer in July 2019, and reelected as WSBA treasurer in July 2020, becoming the first member to serve as treasurer
for two terms and two consecutive terms. Clark is a senior deputy prosecuting attorney with the Yakima County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, Corporate Counsel Division. His legal practice includes providing legal representation to Yakima
County department heads and elected officials in civil, financial, forfeiture, and taxation litigation matters. He is the legal counsel for the Southeast Washington Aging and Long-Term Care Council of Governments, an entity that provides important
services for vulnerable clients. Born and raised in Yakima, Clark received his B.A. in political science, magna cum laude, from Central Washington University and his J.D., cum laude, from Gonzaga University School of Law.
Email: DanClarkBOG@yahoo.com
Jordan Couch | Governor, At-Large (2021-2024)
Jordan Couch was elected to the Board of Governors in 2021 to represent
new and young lawyers in an at-large position. Couch is a partner at Palace Law, practicing workers' compensation and personal injury. In his spare time, he is an avid outdoorsman — probably stemming from his childhood spent between an island
in Alaska and the Bighorn River valley in Montana. Prior to joining the Board of Governors, Couch served as a trustee for the Tacoma-Pierce County Bar Association, chair of the Access to Justice Board's Technology Committee, and chair of the Washington
Young Lawyers Committee, and has held various leadership roles on the Solo and Small Practice Section's Executive Committee. Couch is passionate about solving access to justice by helping lawyers build better, more client-centric practices, and
never gets tired of talking about how to improve our profession (or fishing).
Email: jordan@palacelaw.com
Tom Ahearne | Governor, At-Large (2023-2026)
Tom Ahearne was elected to the Board of Governors in 2023 to fill the at large seat for diversity, equity, and inclusion. An Air Force brat who grew up all across our country, Ahearne has been a Seattle litigator since 1986 at Foster Garvey. Most of his cases involve one or more aspects of constitutional law, municipal compliance, insurance coverage, cybercrime losses, and/or high profile appeals. www.foster.com/people-thomas-ahearne. His professional activities include serving on the boards of the following: NAACP’s Alaska/Oregon/Washington Conference, Washington Defense Trial Lawyers (WDTL), Appellate Section of the King County Bar Association (KCBA), Washington Council Of School Attorneys (COSA), and Washington Chapter of the Federal Bar Association (FBA). His main non work activities are trying to (1) remind his wife and kids how loved and wonderful they are, (2) not stress out the lifeguards too much as he poorly swims at the pool several times a week, and (3) hand pedal his tricycle in bicycle events like the Seattle To Portland STP, Mount Baker Hill Climb, and Ride the Hurricane.
Email: ahearne@foster.com
Brent Williams-Ruth | Governor, At-Large (2022-2025)
Brent Williams-Ruth was first elected as a district governor to the Board of Governors in 2020
and was elected to an at-large position in 2022. Williams-Ruth has had a varied career ranging from working as a 1L intern with the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office to working in a nonlegal role with (formerly) Fisher Radio Seattle.
Since 2015, he has been the sole proprietor of a concierge estate planning, probate/trust, and elder law firm. Since starting his own firm, Williams-Ruth has volunteered with Seattle University School of Law as a mentor and judge for legal writing
oral arguments. He began his volunteer service with the WSBA in 2018 when he joined the Character and Fitness Board, serving as its vice chair in the 2019-2020 year. He resigned his position with Character and Fitness in September 2020 to take
his seat as a governor. He also serves as a trustee on the Washington State Bar Foundation. When not working or volunteering, you will find him spending time scuba diving, traveling, hiking, and creating adventures with his husband, Justin.
Email: brent@williams-ruthlaw.com
Sunitha Anjilvel | Governor, District 1, (2022-2024)
Sunitha Anjilvel was reelected to the Board of Governors in 2021. She has practiced family law
and estate planning in the Pacific Northwest since 2008. Since her first admission to practice law in 1990, Anjilvel has practiced in a variety of courts in Canada, California, and Washington in family law, criminal law, and civil litigation.
In 2005, she served as director of a bipartisan campaign to support a redistricting reform initiative on California’s statewide ballot. She is committed to social justice and currently is a member of the WSBA Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Council and a director on the Board of Domestic Relations Attorneys of Washington (DRAW). Anjilvel has also volunteered for the Kinship Care Project and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. She has a B.A. from McGill University and a J.D. from
Dalhousie Law School. She is licensed to practice law in Washington and California.
Email: sunitha@amlawseattle.com
Kari Petrasek | Governor, District 2 (2022-2025)
Kari Petrasek was elected to the Board of Governors in 2022. She is
a graduate of Seattle University School of Law. She is a solo attorney, having started her own firm, Petrasek Law, in Mukilteo in January 2015. In the 13 years prior to starting her own firm, she worked in several small firms in Everett. She is
a civil litigator with significant experience in the areas of juvenile law, guardianships, estate planning, elder law, and family law. Petrasek is also a dedicated advocate for children, having served as a volunteer and attorney guardian ad litem
for dependent children. She has been one of the Snohomish County CASA Program attorneys for over 15 years. In addition, Petrasek has served as a judge and commissioner pro tempore for Snohomish County Superior Court since 2010. She is the immediate
past-chair of the WSBA Solo & Small Practice Section, the treasurer of Washington Women Lawyers, a past-president of the Snohomish County Bar Association, a member of Washington State CASA, a leader in the ABA GPSolo Division, and a coach
for the Archbishop Murphy High School Mock Trial teams. In her free time, Petrasek enjoys skiing, golfing, football, and baseball.
Email: kari@petraseklaw.com.
Allison Widney | Governor, District 3 (2023-2026)
Allison Widney was elected to the Board of Governors in 2023. She graduated from the University of
Oregon School of Law in 2011. Before that, she earned a criminal justice bachelor’s degree from Arizona State University. After law school, she worked as a public defender in Clark County. In 2017, she moved into civil law and currently
works as a personal injury defense attorney. Widney grew up in Yakima. She enjoys running, hanging with her dog named Swift (not after Taylor Swift), learning about wine, and traveling.
Mary M. Rathbone | Governor, District 4 (2022-2024)
Mary Rathbone was elected to the Board of Governors in 2022. She is a partner at Moberg Rathbone Kearns, P.S. She has a B.A. in business administration from Washington State University, with an emphasis in international business. She obtained her license to practice law through the WSBA Rule 6 program. For the last 11 years, she has worked primarily in civil defense litigation. Rathbone’s passion to become an attorney was ignited at a very young age. Her father, a former superior court judge, would often care for her in chambers because she refused to take naps at daycare. When she is not at the office, she can be found balancing ballet, piano, karate, and baseball with her two children, ages 6 and 8. She also serves her local community as a member of Soroptimist International, a nonprofit that serves to better the lives of women and children through economic empowerment.
Email: mmrbog4d@gmail.com
Francis Adewale | Governor, District 5 (2021-2024), Treasurer
Francis Adewale was elected to the Board of Governors in 2021 and elected
by the Board as treasurer in 2022. Adewale is one of the attorneys that helped establish Spokane Community Court, and his commitment to community and movement lawyering is epitomized by his work on several community-based boards and activities
in Eastern Washington. He has served as chair of Refugee Connections Spokane, co-chair of Spokane Homeless Coalition, and member/trustee of the Spokane County Bar Association and its Volunteer Lawyers Program. Adewale is former chair of the Access
to Justice Board and a member of the Washington Supreme Court’s Interpreters Commission. He is currently a board member of Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP), board president of Multi-Ethnic Business Association-AHANA, and an adjunct
faculty member of both Whitworth University and Gonzaga Law School. He is a founding member of the Washington Statewide Reentry Council, having been reappointed three times by Governor Jay Inslee. He is a current fellow of the National Council
of Bar Presidents Diversity Scholars. In addition to serving on the Board of Directors of Spokane City Credit Union, Adewale and his wife also own and run a small business in Spokane.
Email: fadewale@spokanecity.org
Todd A. Bloom | Governor, District 6 (2023-2026)
Todd Bloom is a sole practitioner with over two decades of experience in providing professional services to private and publicly-held companies, high net worth families, executives, and private business owners. Bloom’s prior experience includes over a decade as a tax attorney and senior manager in Big Four accounting, as well as in-house counsel. Recalled to the Navy after 9/11 and serving over a decade, Bloom retired as a Lieutenant Commander in 2018. He deployed in support of military and counter-terrorism operations and exercises in the Persian Gulf, the Pacific, Southeast Asia, and South America during shipboard and expeditionary tours. Bloom earned his B.A. from Simpson College. He received M.B.A. and J.D. degrees from Tulane University, an M.A. from the Naval War College, an LL.M. from the University of Washington, and a diploma from the College of Naval Command and Staff. Originally from the Midwest, Cmdr. and Mrs. Bloom and their two sons came to the Pacific Northwest by way of New Orleans, Louisiana, where Bloom was first admitted to the bar.
Matthew Dresden | Governor, District 7 North (2023-2026)
Matthew Dresden was elected to the Board of Governors in 2020. He is a solo practitioner
at Dresden Law PLLC in Seattle, where he handles a wide range of corporate and transactional matters, with an emphasis on media and entertainment, international intellectual property, and cross-border work. Before attending law school, Dresden
worked in Hollywood for several years as an independent filmmaker. Dresden served on the executive committee of the WSBA’s International Practice Section for eight years, including a term as chair. He is also an adjunct faculty member at
Indiana University Maurer School of Law, where he teaches a clinic on legal issues for independent filmmakers. He served as a law clerk in the Southern District of Texas for U.S. District Court Judge Vanessa D. Gilmore and U.S. Bankruptcy Judge
Jeff Bohm. He has a B.A. from Stanford University, a J.D. from the University of California, Los Angeles, and LL.M.s from New York University and the National University of Singapore.
Email: matthew@dresdenlaw.com
Serena Sayani | Governor, District 7 South (2021-2024)
Serena Sayani was elected to the Board of Governors in 2021. She is
a shareholder at Stokes Lawrence, P.S., in the real estate and business transaction practice group. Sayani’s commercial real estate practice focuses on acquisitions, dispositions, development, construction, and leasing. Her clients include
real estate investment trusts, public and private pension plans, tax-exempt investors, developers, and other businesses. Outside of her practice, Sayani is a member of the WSBA Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Council (formerly the WSBA Diversity
Committee); a board member for Commercial Real Estate Women (CREW); the co-chair of the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee for NAIOP Washington; the co-chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee of Stokes Lawrence, P.S.; a member
of the King County Bar Association’s MLK Jr. Luncheon Committee; and an attorney mentor-coach for the Mercer Island High School Mock Trial Team (2018-2019). Recently, Sayani was honored with the 2019 Up-and-Coming CRE Attorney Award by the
Puget Sound Business Journal and the Rising Rock Star Award by CREW/Elevate.
Email: serena.sayani@stokeslaw.com
Kristina Larry | Governor, District 8 (2023-2026)
Kristina Larry was elected to the Board of Governors in 2023. She is a true solo with her firm Sassy Litigations where she practices trademark, small business, cybersecurity, and data privacy law. She also created the legal sub brands The Prenup Princess and The Seattle Wedding Lawyer. In addition to running her firm, Larry is a staff attorney and lecturer at the University of Washington School of Law. For 10 years she was a volunteer with the King County Bar Association’s Housing Justice Project. From 2015 to 2019, she served as a trustee of the Washington State Bar Foundation and from 2019 to 2021, she served as president. She also served on the executive committee of the WSBA Solo and Small Practice Section for eight years and was a member of the Practice of Law Board. In 2018 she was named as one the 40 Under 40 by South Sound Business magazine. Kristina completed her undergraduate work at the University of Wyoming and earned her J.D. at the HBCU Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University. Additionally, Larry has earned certificates in the areas of cybersecurity, data privacy, and blockchain technology.
Kevin Fay | Governor, District 9 (2022-2025)
Kevin Fay was
elected to the Board of Governors in 2022. Prior to serving on the Board, he served on the Executive Committee of the Corporate Counsel Section, the Washington chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel, and the Washington Chapter of the
Society of Corporate Secretaries and Governance Professionals. He recently retired from three decades of service as in-house counsel for VMware, Inc., PACCAR Inc., and Microsoft Corporation, with an eclectic practice that included corporate and
securities work, software licensing and services, equipment financing, mergers and acquisitions, real estate and construction, and immigration. Prior to going in-house, he was in private practice at Mudge, Rose and Shearman & Sterling in New
York City, and Bogle & Gates in Seattle. Originally from Seattle, he earned two undergraduate degrees in political science and history from the University of Washington, a J.D., magna cum laude, from the State University of New York at Buffalo,
and an LL.M. from Harvard Law School.
Email: kevinfaybog@yahoo.com
Nam Nguyen | Governor, District 10 (2022-2025)
Nam Nguyen was elected to the Board of Governors in 2022. He is an assistant
attorney general in the Revenue and Finance Division in Tumwater. Prior to the Attorney General’s Office, Nguyen worked in private practice in Bellevue and Houston, Texas. Immediately after law school, he volunteered in Bayou La Batre, Alabama,
for AmeriCorp’s BP oil spill relief program. Aside from the WSBA, Nguyen serves on the board for the Family Support Center, a nonprofit social service organization serving homeless families in the Olympia area, and he is the chair of the
Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs. Nguyen was born in Saigon, Vietnam, and grew up in the South Seattle area. He graduated from the University of Washington and Boston University School of Law, and he has a master’s degree in
foreign policy from the University of Michigan. Nguyen resides in Tumwater and enjoys running, reading, cooking, and spending time with his dog, Dog Vader.
Email: namn@atg.wa.gov
