MINUTES

Present: ATJ Board members Chair Michele Jones, Christine Crowell, Hon. Gregory Tripp, Pam Feinstein, Rich Kuhling, Pete Dewell, Scott Smith; ATJ Board liaisons Jan Grant (Office of Hearings and Appeals); ATJ Board committee chairs and members Barbara Clark, Debi Perluss, Pat McIntyre, Wayne Blair, Leonard Schroeter, Ada Shen-Jaffe, Erin Hyppa, Don Horowitz; Guests Carl Livingston (Loren Miller Bar Association), Joel Nichols (Unemployment Law Project); Staff Joan Fairbanks, Leslie Johnson, Sharlene Steele, Pam Inglesby, Rebecca Elder.

Announcement of new judicial liaisons to ATJ Board

Office of Hearings and Appeals: Jan Grant

Superior Court Judges Association: Judge Glenna Hall (King County)

District and Municipal Court Judges Association: TBA

Board for Judicial Administration: Judge Paul Bastine (tentative)

Minutes from June 8, 2001 meeting

The Minutes were approved as written.

Discussion of process of identifying/recruiting non-attorney ATJ Board members Michele Jones provided a brief background for this discussion. The new ATJ Board order provides that up to two members of the ATJ Board shall be non-attorneys, beginning with the next vacancy(ies). Current members are eligible for three-year terms with an option to seek additional three-year terms. If all seek reappointment for a second term, there may be no vacancies for at least three more years. ATJ Board member Pete Dewell has offered to not renew his position on the Board to accommodate a new non-attorney member. The two questions posed to the Board were: How do we define the “end” of an ATJ Board member’s term? (2) What process do we use to identify/recruit non-attorney members? After a wide-ranging discussion, the ATJ Board agreed to honor current Board members’ desires to be appointed for second three-year terms, but would ameliorate the problem by actively identifying and including non-attorneys in the Board process and making an effort to include them on all ATJ Board committees. In this way, non-attorneys can become part of the process and the ATJ Board can in turn identify and encourage those who may in the future wish to formally join the Board.

The Board also had a wide-ranging discussion about how to identify non-attorney groups and individuals. Suggestions included: contacting human services alliances and leadership development groups in all counties; asking ATJ Board committee chairs to recruit non-attorney members; contacting boards of all civil legal services providers in the state; identifying current or former client-eligible members; elderly/retired people; social and legal services providers; ATJ and regional conference lists; Equal Justice Coalition mailing list; list from Summer of Justice.

**The ATJ Board will take the following steps to identify and recruit non-attorneys:

(1) The staff and Board members will gather available lists of individuals and groups identified above. (Board members are asked to send the lists to Joan).
(2) The staff will develop an outreach plan for compiling and using these lists.
(3) The Board will ask each ATJ Board committee chair to recruit non-attorney members. The lists will be made available to the committee chairs.
(4) The ATJ Board will develop a job description, which will be distributed to the lists and posted on the Northwest Justice Project, WSBA and other web sites.
(5) The Executive Committee will discuss ways to move this project forward.

Status of proposed state legal needs study

The ATJ Board is in the process of raising $100,000 to fund a statewide civil legal needs study. Chair Michele Jones sent a letter to every WSBA Section chair asking for contributions. The ATJ Board members, in turn, have been asked to contact members they know in these sections to encourage them to consider the request. Judge Gregory Tripp will be making a presentation to the BJA on September 21 to ask for a $50,000 contribution for the study, which will be matched by contributions from the other Access to Justice Network partners. It is anticipated that representatives from Oregon will travel to Seattle to participate in that presentation. Ada reported that Oregon has realized an addition $2 million in part as a result of the findings of its study. Scott Smith has made a formal request to the King County Bar Association for a contribution. A two-page summary of talking points prepared for the BJA was distributed to the ATJ Board for use in contacting WSBA section members and others. Judge Tripp invited comments and suggestions from the ATJ Board in preparation for his presentation to the BJA on September 21. **The ATJ Board discussed how to approach the Sections and identified individuals they will contact individually, including BOG members actively engaged in Sections. There is a letter in the ATJ Board materials signed by the chairs of ten Section chairs supporting civil legal services funding. These include Family Law, Administrative Law, Corporate Law, Labor and Employment, Creditor-Debtor, Dispute Resolution, Law Practice Management, Litigation and Taxation. Michele asked that ATJ Board members keep her and/or Joan informed about the contacts they have made and any progress on the requests. Any information should be directed to Joan Fairbanks by noon on September 20. Pam Feinstein reminded the ATJ Board that in addition to helping to increase resources, data from the study also will be useful in determining the services to be provided to clients. Michele encouraged the ATJ Board to think of other organizations that could be approached.

Status of Legal Services Funding Task Force

Chief Justice Alexander has reported that the Supreme Court unanimously approved the ATJ Board’s request to establish a legal services funding task force. He has drafted an order that he will send to the Board for comments. **Joan will distribute it to Board members as soon as she receives it.

Equal Justice Coalition Report

EJC Chair Wayne Blair reported that the EJC had a retreat in July at which members considered current and new directions, including the role for the EJC lobbyists. WSBA lobbyist Gail Stone has encouraged the EJC to continue to engage lobbyists. The EJC is planning a day at the legislature to educate members about equal justice. Barbara Clark reported there is a question as to whether TANF monies will be available for civil legal services funding, and that if they are not forthcoming in the supplemental legislative session there may be staff lay-offs in the legal services provider network. Barbara complimented Wayne Blair on his introduction the night before at the WSBA Annual Awards dinner of Equal Justice Coalition Champion of Justice award winner Senator Dow Constantine. She also noted that John McKay received one of the WSBA’s Awards of Merit. She reported that EJC staff coordinator Erin Hyppa is staying another year. Pam Feinstein reported on the King County funding situation. Six legal services agencies were being funded by King County in 2000; in 2001 that number dropped to three programs. Programs have now been informed that no legal services programs will be funded in 2002. Currently Pam and others are trying to get additional information so that a lobbying effort can be launched. The EJC has pledged its assistance. Contacts with Council members may be the only viable approach. Presentation of Draft Model Guidelines on Inclusion, Diversity and Multicultural Competence Ada Shen-Jaffe provided a brief history of the development of the draft guidelines. The purpose is to move from the discussion phase to the action phase in addressing issues of diversity, inclusion and multicultural competence (IDM). The goal in drafting the guidelines is to establish a jumping off point to achieve a set of commonly articulated goals, commonly articulated values, guidelines for implementation, and mechanisms to be held accountable that will be embraced and utilized by the entire justice system.

**Along with the discussion of the guidelines, the ATJ Board discussed doing the following:

(1) Consider amending the ATJ Board’s Statement of Principles and Goals, Hallmarks, State Plan, Performance Guidelines and other foundational and accountability documents to incorporate the principles and goals in the draft model guidelines on IDM.
(2) Ask all ATJ Board committees to consider the guidelines, particularly relative to recruitment efforts.
(3) Formally adopt the guidelines as soon as there has been input from the community.
(4) Once adopted, asking individuals and groups to adopt them as well.
(5) Asking the Supreme Court to adopt the guidelines.

Message development

Michele Jones introduced the topic by noting that there are numerous media-related and message development initiatives underway that need coordination and focus: the ATJ Board and PLE Council have a joint Media Committee; the EJC has done a lot of work with the media and message development; and WSBA has media initiatives underway. She reported that she attended a national message development training in July sponsored by the National Legal Aid and Defender Association for the purpose of introducing a message development strategy that could in turn be shared with individual states and communities. She distributed and reviewed materials on developing a national message for civil legal services, which were the result of surveys and focus groups conducted nationally by public relations consultants. Key points: most members of the public do not know about civil legal services; those who do know about civil legal services are generally supportive; key values that underlie that support are fairness and responsibility. The messages that resonate are that every person should be to obtain rights regardless of income and that every person deserves access to justice. The “tool kit” she distributed contains everything necessary to frame a media campaign, including ads that had been tested before focus groups. The ATJ-PLE Media Committee has three projects they are implementing: (1) a media resource guide; (2) a “law school” for the media; (3) the media’s role in judicial election/selection. One of the original purposes of the committee was to serve as a clearinghouse for media-related messages and other information. Erin Hyppa described the EJC’s activities with respect to the media. During Summer of Justice 2000 the EJC met with editorial boards in local communities, and is now trying to determine how to develop messages – including human interest articles –for distribution and use statewide. At the 2001 ATJ Conference the EJC sponsored a workshop that focused on this topic. She noted that the LFW grantees are “hungry” for these messages but need technical assistance, perhaps in the form of a team of trainers to visit local programs and communities. At the EJC’s July retreat, there was a discussion about priorities, including a suggestion that there needs to be a statewide coordinator for this function. No decisions were made. Pat McIntyre noted that this community has done an admirable job even without a formal coordinating entity and that we can continue in this vein and still be accomplishing a great deal.

The following suggestions were made to address the need for coordinated message development and dissemination An *= those suggestions that will be followed up on prior to the next ATJ Board meeting:

1. *Use the ATJ web site for a clearinghouse for media-related materials and information
2. Consider the possibility of a dedicated paid or volunteer staff person
3. Conducting a training of the trainers.
4. Locate a pro bono public relations/marketing firm
5. *Explore on-line training
6. Develop a statewide media campaign using national materials, which can be taken on the road or put on-line
7. Intranet for internal communications about media resources, etc.
8. *Take the national materials to the Media Committee and ask its members to advise about their use.
9. *Expand the Media Committee
10. *Talk with WSBA Communications Director Judy Berrett about her ideas for uses of the tool kit