July 2004

Around the State

Around the State reports are welcome from county and specialty bar associations. There are no rules for writing them, except to mention lots of your members. We leave it up to each organization to decide who does it, and to the correspondent to decide how often. Many counties are still available. Contact the editor at tradelaw@thompson-law.com for more information.

Clark County News

Blair Schaefer Hutchison & Wolfe LLP is pleased to welcome lawyers Jonathan R. Gill and Trent Kunz to the firm. Gill concentrates his practice in the areas of business and civil litigation, professional negligence, and personal injury. He received his bachelor's degree from Golden Gate University and his law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. He is licensed to practice in Washington, Oregon, and California, and is a member of the Clark County, Washington, Oregon, and California bar associations.

Kunz focuses his practice in the areas of business law, estate planning, real estate, and taxation. He received his bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University, his J.D. from the UCLA School of Law, and his LL.M. in Taxation from the University of Washington School of Law. He became an adjunct professor at Clark College in 2003. He is licensed to practice law in Washington and Oregon, and is a member of the Clark County, Washington, and Oregon bar associations.

Gonzaga Law News

Dean Daniel J. Morrissey has resigned as dean of the Gonzaga University School of Law, effective June 30. He said he wanted to pursue other opportunities in academic administration. Morrissey succeeded John Clute in June 2001, and presided over a major fundraising campaign that culminated in the construction of a new law school building. A national search will be conducted for Morrissey's successor.

Indian Law News

The WSBA Indian Law Section recently gifted $5,000 in scholarships to Northwest Native law students as part of an ongoing effort to support Indian students seeking a legal education. In less than one year, the Indian Law Section and Northwest Indian Bar Association (NIBA) have raised and donated over $30,000 in scholarships to aspiring Indian lawyers from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Alaska.

Although the Indian Law Section and NIBA have long supported Northwest Native law students through financial assistance, including sponsorship of the UW Native American Law Student Association's student team that attended the Moot Court Competition in New York City last year, the organizations' recent scholarship donations represent their largest contributions to date.

"It is the top priority of our tribal bar to help provide Native people with the resources they need to access the legal profession," said past two-term NIBA president and current chair of the Indian Law Section Gabriel Galanda. "Many of our members would not be where they are today without the scholarships they received along the way. We are committed to doing the same for others."

More than 80 Native American high school and college students from Washington, Alaska, and Idaho gathered at the UW School of Law on April 23-24 to explore legal studies as a gateway to many different rewarding careers. Made possible by a $40,000 grant from the Law School Admissions Council, the conference allows students to get a first-hand look at what it takes to be a lawyer.

"We're in the Northwest with a vibrant Native American population, and this conference is a result of a common vision and the collaboration with the Northwest Indian Bar Association, the Native American Law Center, alumni of color, and current law students," said Sandra Madrid, assistant dean for students and community development. "This is about the planting of seeds — seeds of opportunity for every participant. We want to encourage them that going to law school is a reachable goal, and that an attorney's career, particularly when it is in the service of one's community, is rich and rewarding."

Speakers included law school faculty members Robert Anderson, director of the Native American Law Center, and Ron Whitener, who leads the Tribal Court Criminal Defense Clinic, as well as prominent Native American attorneys and tribal leaders — such as Rion Ramirez, president of the Northwest Indian Bar Association, and Billy Frank, chairman of the Northwest Indian Fisheries Commission.

Island County Report
by Tom Pacher

Greetings once again from the shores of Penn Cove.

Superior Court Judges Alan Hancock and Vickie Churchill have been studiously (judiciously?) poring over local rules for Island and San Juan Counties, and have worked out a number of changes that are still under consideration. If you're coming up here in the near future, it may be a good idea to check Island County's website or check with the court administrator to see if the new rules have taken effect yet. Consider it a friendly heads up.

The Island County Bar Association recently held its monthly meeting in Freeland. It was nice to see some familiar faces and meet some new people there. If you're going to be on Whidbey Island the last Wednesday of any month, and wish to drop by one of our meetings, please feel free to do so. You can reach the ICBA through Hans Juhl or me via the contact information listed by the WSBA.

Kim Page, an attorney who has been very active in the local Volunteer Lawyers Program and has been a key player in the Island County Bar Association, and who is married to an active-duty officer in the military, is leaving us. It seems Uncle Sam wants to send her husband to the other side of the country, and doggone it, she's going with him. Kim has given a lot of her time and energy to a lot of people in Island County, and will be missed by many.

It seems Uncle Sam is determined to have a greater effect on military spouses around here; Jillian Carilli and Jane Williamson are both following their husbands to new assignments on other parts of the planet. We will certainly miss the wit and skill of both of these attorneys. This will also apparently mark a 25 percent diminution in attorneys practicing in this state who are named "Jillian."

Island County Deputy Prosecutor Eric Ohme recently complained to me that he hadn't been mentioned in a previous Island County report. Now he has. Call your friends and former professors, Eric. Your name is in Bar News, and it's not bad news.

Judiciary Report
by Lindsay Thompson

Pierce County Superior Court recently completed production of "Behind the Scenes: The Work of a Superior Court Judge." This 15-minute educational video, produced by the Court and Rainier Cable TV in conjunction with Law Week, was aired on the county's cablecast systems (Comcast Channel 22, Click! Network Channel 86, and Rainier Group Channel 78) during May and June. The video, featuring Judges Stephanie Arend and Bruce Cohoe, explains the many and varied activities of a superior court judge when not presiding over trials.

Governor Gary Locke, Chief Justice Gerry Alexander, and others were among those present for the May 13 swearing-in of Judge Ruth Reukauf as a Yakima County Superior Court judge. Reukauf previously served as a district court judge and succeeded Judge Michael Leavitt, who resigned to become a U.S. magistrate judge in Yakima.

Also in May, Governor Locke appointed King County District Court Judge J. Wesley Saint Clair to the King County Superior Court. Saint Clair was appointed to the King County District Court in 1991. Prior to his election, he worked in private practice on both civil and criminal matters. He was presiding judge of the King County District Court before his new appointment. The King County Bar Association recognized Saint Clair as its 2003 Judge of the Year. He succeeded Judge Donald Haley, who retired after 20 years on the bench.

The governor has also appointed Tacoma attorney Linda Lee, formerly with Gordon, Thomas, Honeywell, Malanca, Peterson & Daheim, to the Pierce County Superior Court. She fills the position vacated when Locke named Judge Marywave Van Deren to the state Court of Appeals in April.

State Court Administrator Mary Campbell McQueen resigns her post next month to become president of the National Center for State Courts. Founded in 1971, the center provides leadership, research, technology, education, and training to the state courts. McQueen is a part board member for the center, which has offices in Williamsburg and Arlington, Virginia, and in Denver. She has spent 25 years in the Washington court system, the last 17 as administrator, and was previously a court planning officer for the Washington, D.C., and Kentucky court systems.

Spokane County Report
by Capt. Ingrid Larson-Alexander, USAF

The Judge Advocate General's office of Fairchild Air Force Base, Spokane, hosted a community Law Day luncheon at its Officers' Club on May 4, 2004, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education decision. Attendees included: William Battey, Pamela Byerley, George Jacobs, Ward McAuliffe, David Turplesmith, and Maureen McGuire from the U.S. Attorney General's Office; Larry Briney and Rose Priest from the Washington Attorney General's Office; Spokane County Prosecutor Steve Tucker; Howard Delaney of the Spokane City Prosecutor's office; Michael Connelly and Doris Stragier of the Spokane City Attorney's office; Larry Lindskog, David Wiyrick, and Esther Larsen from the Spokane County Sheriff's Office; and Al Oldenthal and Jeanie Spiering of the Spokane Police Department. Chaplain Frederick Johnson, Pastor Mitchell, Sherry Hokanson, and students from Michael Anderson Elementary School provided dramatic performances and readings for the occasion.

Thurston County Report
by Fred D. Gentry

TCBA's annual dinner meeting was held May 21 at the Olympia Golf and Country Club. Outgoing President Cecilia Clynch turned the gavel over to Paul Meyer, who will guide us for the coming year. Other new officers are Chris Schaller, president-elect; Allen Miller, secretary; and Jan Carrington, treasurer. Soon-to-be-retiring Judge Daniel J. Berschauer was the 2004 Daniel Bigelow Award winner. The award is named after Dan Bigelow, a highly regarded lawyer who moved to Olympia in 1850. The award is given annually to the member who demonstrates outstanding citizenship and professionalism in the community. Other nominees were Lee Creighton, C.H. Skip Houser, and Jim Powers. Joe Lynch presented the prizes for the golf tournament. The winning foursome was made up of Steve Henderson, Bill Hope, Chris McCabe, and "Mr. TCBA Golf" himself, Joe Lynch. The meeting was well attended, and a good time was had by all.

Soon to be occupying their under-construction respective palatial offices are the firms of Morris & Sockle and Ditlevson, Rogers & Dixon.

UW Law School News

Gregory C. Simon, president of FasterCures/The Center for Accelerating Medical Solutions, a Washington, D.C.-based "action tank," has been selected to receive the 2004 Sharon Nelson Leadership Award. Every year, the Shidler Center for Law, Commerce, and Technology selects an outstanding alumna/alumnus to acknowledge significant contributions in the fields of law and technology. The award was presented May 20 in Seattle.

Simon is a 1983 graduate of the UW School of Law, and was Vice President Al Gore's chief domestic policy advisor from 1993 to 1997. Currently, Simon heads FasterCures, a nonprofit examining the research and development process to accelerate the discovery and promotion of new treatments for deadly diseases.

Simon was nominated by Professor Stewart Jay, a constitutional law expert at the UW, who describes Simon as "a major player in the technology field [who] is respected by people from across partisan lines, [and] one of the most decent individuals that one is ever likely to find." The three-member awards committee consists of Sonya Erickson of Heller Ehrman Venture Law Group; Glenn Kawasaki of Catch Incorporated; and Professor Ed Lazowska, the UW's Bill and Melinda Gates Chair in computer science and engineering.

The award was established in 2003 and is named after the Shidler Center's first director, Sharon Nelson, who worked at the university from September 2000 to April 2003. She also served as the chairwoman for the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission from 1985 to 1997. Judge Betty Fletcher, U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, was the first recipient.

Yakima County News

Velikanje Moore & Shore, P.S. is pleased to announce that Metiner G. Kimel, a shareholder in the firm, was appointed by the Office of the United States Trustee to serve as a Chapter 7 panel trustee in Yakima, effective April 6, 2004. Mr. Kimel, whose prior experience includes three years of clerking with the bankruptcy courts in Yakima and in the Central District of California, has been with the Velikanje office since August 1999. He continues to practice in the areas of debtor-creditor transactions, general commercial and secured transactions, and commercial tax planning and litigation.

The Washington Supreme Court visited Yakima May 13, holding oral argument on three cases in Kendall Hall at Yakima Valley Community College. Members of the Court also took part in the swearing-in of new Yakima County Superior Court Judge Ruth Reukauf.

In Memoriam

CORRECTION: In an obituary for Alton S. White in the March Bar News, the name of Mr. White's surviving wife was misspelled. The correct spelling is Barbetta Ralphs, not Barbara Ralphs. We regret the error.

James H. Dunn
A Seattle native and longtime Vancouver resident, Jim Dunn was a noted track athlete in high school, an Eagle Scout, and a graduate of Washington State University and Seattle University School of Law. He practiced in Clark County with his father, William H. Dunn, for 14 years.

Survivors include his wife, Heather; two children; his parents; and a sister and brother. James Hudson Dunn was born in Seattle March 31, 1964, and died in Everett April 20, 2004, as the result of a fall from a building. He was 40.

Judge William S. Lewis
Known as "Wild Bill" around the King County Courthouse, William Lewis spent 32 years on the King County District Court bench and became a legendary courthouse figure for his unorthodox solutions to problems. Friends recalled that when traffic defendants told him they couldn't afford their fines, he'd order them to put their cars on blocks and take the bus, or walk, to work until they could. "And he'd check," Lewis's widow, Dorothy, told The Seattle Times. Other times he would sentence them to wash windows or clean their homes to help out their families and still experience some form of punishment. A man he sent out to collect garbage as an alternative to paying his fine returned with a big bag of it and the question, "What do you want me to do with it?"

Born to American parents in China who shipped him home in the 1930s as Japan invaded — his father later died in a concentration camp — Lewis graduated from the UW and its law school before becoming a founding member of Lee Smart Cook & Patterson in Seattle. In 1958 he filed a lawsuit to create a new district court judgeship, and when it was created, ran for it and got elected. He held the seat until he retired in 1990.

Lewis also won renown as what The Seattle Times obituary called "a fabulous ballroom dancer."

Survivors include his wife; three children and one stepchild; and three grandchildren. Judge William Swenson Lewis was born in China in 1915 and died in Redmond April 1, 2004, aged 89.

William Messer
Auburn lawyer William Messer was found dead in his office in April, the victim of a fatal beating. Messer was an Air Force veteran who enjoyed breeding and racing horses. He practiced bankruptcy law in the South King County area for a decade. Survivors include his fiancée, Doris Day; three children; and one sister.

William W. Messer was born in Chicago January 25, 1947, and died in Auburn April 12, 2004, aged 57.

Jerry N. Parks
A veteran of the Korean War, Jerry Parks was a graduate of the University of Texas at Arlington, and received his law degree from the University of Houston. He practiced for several years in Houston before moving to Bellevue in 1972. Before his retirement, he practiced both civil and criminal law, primarily in Seattle and Bellevue, and served for many years as a public defender with Eastside Public Defenders Association.

Mr. Parks was an avid bicyclist, an accomplished skier, and a dedicated reader. He volunteered with the Ski Acres/Summit Central Ski Patrol for many years, and completed two cross-country bicycle trips in the past four years. He is remembered for his penchant for a good argument, his zest for challenge, and never being without a good book. Survivors include his two daughters, his brother, and three grandchildren.

In accordance with his wishes, he will rest near his brother's cabin in the Alaskan wilderness. His family suggests memorials be made to the Ski Acres/Summit Central Volunteer Ski Patrol, 604 128th Ave. S.E., Bellevue, WA 98005.

Jerry Nathe Parks died on April 5, 2004, aged 71.

Bar News has also been advised of the deaths of the following members: Terence J. Denigan, Saipan, Northern Marianas Islands, admitted October 14, 1996, died September 8, 2003; Oliver Joseph Neibel Jr., Omaha, NE, admitted March 27, 1953, died February 25, 2003; Clinton Fisk Raymond, Burnaby, B.C., admitted September 21, 1964, died February 10, 2004; M. Lawrence Ross, University Place, admitted September 9, 1958, died October 30, 2003; Ralph G. Wilmot Jr., Larvik, Norway, admitted October 3, 1956, died August 1, 2003.

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