August 2004

The Board's Work

by Lindsay Thompson

Ocean Shores, May 14-15; Yakima, June10, 2004

With the turnover of president and BOG members every September, late spring and summer bring a deluge of reports and recommendations from the various task forces and committees who have been beavering away since the last change of administration. Much of these two meetings was taken up with such things.

The Blue Ribbon Panel on Criminal Defense, chaired by attorney Marc Boman and retired Justice Robert Utter, presented their report. Like a number of other recent reports on the justice system, this one quantifies just how badly funded and understaffed the criminal defense system is in Washington. The panel recommended creating a standing committee on criminal defense, to marshal and rationalize resources and bodies better, and making a coordinated effort with the Court Funding Task Force to get more money. Well, that and a lot of other things. It is a good report and makes fascinating reading. You can get the full text on the WSBA website at www.wsba.org/blueribbon
report.pdf.

Brooke Taylor, a lawyer of Port Angeles and the newly elected 2004-2005 WSBA president-elect, has been toiling away with a committee to get the WSBA some new office space outside the troubled Fourth & Blanchard Building, more popularly known as the Darth Vader Complex for its wheezing ventilation and black reflective glass skin. Turns out they got a 10-year lease for three floors at Puget Sound Plaza in Seattle, effective 1/1/07. The WSBA will get more space at less cost, more parking, and the ability to develop a CLE center and other stuff members have said they wanted. The lease, with UNICO, allows for two five-year re-ups on top of the first 10.

The BOG decided to tackle the recommendations to revise the Rules of Professional Conduct in "chunks." Bar News outlined the gist of the recommendations in a long article recently. In May the BOG approved the preamble and Titles 1 and 2 (except for some bits they needed to edit and discuss more), and in June they added a half-day session and dealt with most of 3, 4, and 5. Titles 6, 7, and 8 came up at July's meeting, which was past press time. If you want to see the whole deal, it's at www.wsba.org/lawyers/groups/ethics2003.

Charlie Wiggins of Bainbridge Island and Governor Katie O'Sullivan have been chairing a group to pick out an Internet-based legal-research service to make available to all members free. They tentatively picked one, which set off a rather odd bidding war led by one of the losers, who came back and said, OK, so we were going to charge you an arm and a leg before, but now we can give the arm and leg back and still come in under the other guy's cost. It's like asking how much a Rolls-Royce is; being told, "$100,000," and saying "No thanks," then having the salesperson grab you on the way out and reply, "All right, then, I can let you have it for $50,000." More to come.

A variety of groups have developed a Diversity Initiative to encourage law firms to voluntarily think more intentionally about looking less white and male than so many do, and to develop tools and best practices to help with adapting to a more multicultural Washington. Think it's not happening in the population? Check Census 2000. The BOG voted to be a founding member.

Appointments: Lorraine Lee, Olympia, to the Judicial Conduct Commission; Josephine Townsend, Vancouver, to be Lee's alternate; Peter Karademos, Spokane, to chair the Legislative Committee.

While in Ocean Shores the BOG had a number of meetings and events with Northwest Indian Bar Association members, heard a presentation on adding Indian law to the Bar exam, and were feted with a very good program by an Indian dance team.

The BOG's Yakima meeting was in conjunction with the Bar Leaders and Access to Justice Conferences, so everyone was hopping from one meeting to another.  They heard reports from the Access to Justice Board and the Young Lawyers Division, as well as the Court Funding Task Force, whose recommendations and report are not yet complete. They approved two of President Dave Savage's diversity initiatives — the creation of a WSBA Leadership Institute to develop younger, minority WSBA members into a pool of future bar leaders; and the creation of a diversity-advocate staff position to coordinate, promote, and work to ensure equality, diversity, and cultural competence in the WSBA and the justice system.

Nominations: Rebecca Roe, Seattle, to the Supreme Court Pattern Jury Instructions Committee; Mary Wechsler, Seattle, to the Supreme Court Board for Judicial Education.

Elections: Marcine Anderson, Seattle, to the at-large BOG seat being vacated by Zulema Hinojos-Fall. Other BOG elections confirmed: Eron Berg, Mount Vernon, to replace Jon Ostlund, District 2; Stanley Bastian, Wenatchee, to replace Robert Boggs, District 4; Lonnie Davis, Seattle, to replace Carl Carlson, District 7-Central; James Baker, Seattle, to replace Bryce Dille, District 9; and Brooke Taylor, Port Angeles, WSBA president-elect for 2004-2005.

That's it. I'm outta here.

The Board's Work is an unofficial report on meetings and actions of the WSBA's elected governing body. Official minutes, containing matters not covered here, are kept by the WSBA executive director. WSBA members are welcome to attend and speak at all Board meetings.

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