September 2000

Politics Is More Important Than You Think

by Michele Radosevich

Politics today is pretty boring, right? It's hard to find time to stay informed, let alone get involved. The last thing a sane person should do is give money to these politicians, right? Wrong. These politicians make important decisions about the way we lawyers do business. And the most important decisions affecting the practice of law are made by the least visible elected officials — our state legislators. In the last session, Washington legislators amended Article 9 of the U.C.C., clarified the conditions under which the courts could amend parenting plans when one parent wants to relocate, created a county-option fee for mandatory arbitration, and allowed the use of electronic proxies for corporate decision-making.

All of the above are items that lawyers asked for. The Legislature also spent a fair amount of time on bills to reorganize the courts — despite the opposition of the majority of judges and lawyers. And it almost passed a sweeping privacy act that most bar groups had serious misgivings about.

The court reorganization proposals illustrate the impact that the Legislature can have on us — and why we have a problem. Last session, in the House of Representatives, there were legislators of both parties who felt that the court system had seriously broken down and radical reform was necessary. Their answer was a proposal to merge the superior and district courts into a single level trial court.

No matter what you think of this idea, it is a big change from the current system and should not be passed without lots of debate and careful planning. The debate took place largely in the House Judiciary Committee, where a number of members supported the idea. And the debate was frankly scary. It was scary because it seemed focused primarily on the frustration of the general public with courts and lawyers generally, and not with an analysis of workloads and costs.

Of the 12 members of the House Judiciary, a mere three were attorneys; only one of the co-chairs was an attorney. The nine lay members had varying degrees of familiarity with the courts. One was a state patrol officer; others had been litigants. While these are valid perspectives, they do not afford a very broad view of the court system. Listening to the debate, you couldn't help but wish that there were more lawyers up on that dais. Of course, besides the three attorney members of the committee, there are other lawyers in the 98-member House — three other practicing attorneys and two with law degrees. That's not a lot, given the impact the Legislature has on our lives.

The lack of lawyers does not necessarily mean that the Legislature makes bad decisions, but it does mean that we lawyers have to spend more time sharing our hands-on experiences with its members and help them see our point of view. The WSBA has two fine lobbyists, John Fattorini and Gail Stone, who speak for us in Olympia and coordinate our volunteer efforts.

But John and Gail have a significant handicap. They cannot use our dues dollars to help elect legislators who will listen and are sympathetic to our viewpoint. They cannot even give contributions to fellow lawyers. The use of bar dues for political campaigns is strictly prohibited.

We can give as individuals, of course, but normally we don't. Most of us worry that our voice is too small and that our checks cannot possibly make a difference. That's why some far-sighted lawyers created BARPAC a number of years ago, and why some of us are trying to raise BARPAC's visibility now. When you give to BARPAC, you allow it to make contributions to Republicans and Democrats who support our positions. You allow it to identify and give a helping hand to lawyers running for the Legislature. You allow our lobbyists to attend caucus and candidate fund-raising events, thus raising our visibility in Olympia.

BARPAC solicitation letters were mailed to WSBA members recently. Your donation will support the work of our Board of Governors, sections and committees in the next session of the Legislature.

Michele Radosevich is co-chair of BARPAC and practices law at Davis Wright Tremaine in Seattle. She is also vice-chair of the WSBA Legislative Committee and teaches legislation at Seattle University School of Law. She can be reached at 206-628-7768 or by e-mail: micheleradosevich@dwt.com.

Back to table of contents >>