October 2004

History in the Making: Ron Ward, 114th President of the Washington State Bar Association, First President of Color

by Kathy Henning

When Washington State Supreme Court  Chief Justice Gerry Alexander and King County Superior Court Judge Leroy McCullough swore in Ronald R. Ward as the 114th president of the Washington State Bar Association on the evening of September 16 at the WSBA's Annual Business Meeting and Awards Dinner, history was made: Ron Ward is the WSBA's first African-American president in its 116-year history.

President Ward; his daughter, Sara; and his wife, Kiti; at a reception honoring the incoming president given by the Loren Miller Bar Association and Levinson Friedman, P.S., September 14, 2004

Ron Ward's rise to the presidency of Washington's 28,400-member bar association was anything but a given. The oldest of 10 children, Ron Ward was born in Sacramento and grew up in the Hunters Point housing project in San Francisco. "We were 12 people living in about 1,000 square feet," he said. "To this day I think I'm still a little claustrophobic."

President Ward earned his J.D. from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. Since 1982 he has been a shareholder in the Seattle firm of Levinson Friedman, with a practice focusing on personal-injury and maritime law. Before being elected president-elect, he served on the WSBA Board of Governors representing the 8th Congressional District. A former assistant attorney general, President Ward is licensed to practice law in California and Washington. Mr. Ward was vice president and a seven-term member of the Board of Governors of the Washington State Trial Lawyers Association (WSTLA), and co-chair of WSTLA's Seattle Downtown Roundtable. In 1994, he received the Distinguished Service Award, presented by Anheuser-Busch Companies, at the national convention of the National Bar Association. In 1995, he received the WSTLA Special President's Recognition Award. Washington Law & Politics magazine selected him as a Super Lawyer for 2003 and 2004.

President Ward does not take his position as the WSBA's first African-American president lightly. "I want to be a positive example to children and young people of color," he said, "because it can literally make the difference between life and death for them. It did for me. One reason I am here today is that as a young man I listened to a speech given by attorney Willie Brown, who later became Speaker of the California Assembly and then Mayor of San Francisco. My mother's example and his accomplishments inspired me to become a lawyer."

President Ward has chosen as the theme of his presidency "Lawyers Render Service: To Their Clients, To the Public, To the Profession" — a tribute, he says, to Fred Gray, lawyer for Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. "The chief thrust of my service will be in the areas of the court funding effort, access to justice, diversity, and the continued enhancement of WSBA member benefits."

In addition to rendering service to his profession and his clients, Ron Ward has demonstrated his dedication to rendering service to the public through extensive community service. He has volunteered as a reading tutor and teaching assistant for first- and second-graders at Hawthorne School in Seattle. He is a past member of the Board of Trustees of the Northwest Chamber Orchestra.

"It's a long way from the projects in San Francisco to the presidency of the Washington State Bar," said President Ward, "and it's a tribute to what our country is all about."

It's also a tribute to what Ron Ward is all about. Well done, Mr. President.

Ron Ward can be reached at rrw@admiralty.com or 206-624-8844.

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