October 2002 

Changing Venues

Joanne Blackburn has been voted president-elect of the Washington Defense Trial Lawyers. An owner in the Seattle firm Garvey Schubert Barer, Ms. Blackburn focuses on insurance coverage and defense, construction, products liability, and general litigation.

Former U.S. Attorney Bruce Carter has received the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Centralia College. Mr. Carter was student-body treasurer, class president, and Washington State Junior College debate champion when he attended Centralia College.

James R. Dickens, Geoffrey Groshong, Brooks E. Harlow and Andrew H. Salter have been named "superlawyers" by Washington Law & Politics magazine. All are partners in the Seattle firm Miller Nash LLP.

Sharon Friedrich has joined McKinley & Irvin PLLC as a senior associate concentrating on complex family-law litigation.

Angelie Chong has joined the Seattle firm Groff Murphy Trachtenberg & Everard PLLC, focusing on commercial litigation and construction law.

Karen A. Klein has joined TOPICS Entertainment as in-house counsel. TOPICS is the ninth-largest software publisher in the United States.

Lawrence J. Wheeler has joined the Spokane firm P.B. Morgan & Associates as an associate focusing on business law.

Stuart C. Allen has joined the Seattle office of Lane Powell Spears Lubersky LLP as a partner in the business group. Mr. Allen represents hospitality and travel businesses, including resort and hotel developers, marketing and sales companies, and homeowners associations.

Peter Livingston has joined the real estate and land use team at the Portland firm Schwabe Williamson & Wyatt PC. He focuses on all stages of land-use permitting, including appeals.

Murray T.S. Lewis has joined the Seattle firm Short Cressman & Burgess PLLC as of counsel. As a member of the litigation group, he concentrates on commercial dispute resolution and litigation.

The Honorable Frederick "Fritz" Hayes has joined JAMS as a resolution expert. Prior to joining JAMS, he served as a Pierce County Superior Court judge for 12 years.

Long-time Spokane lawyer William V. Kelley died August 21 at age 98. Retired from Witherspoon, Kelley, Davenport & Toole in 1976, Mr. Kelley practiced insurance defense and business litigation for more than 40 years. He continued going into his office every day until a few years ago. In the 1940s, he was a professor of evidence at Gonzaga University School of Law, and he served on the GU Law School Council in the 1970s. A reading room was dedicated in his name at the new law school building in 1999.

Seattle lawyer Hubert "Joe" Merrick died August 24 at age 83. A Seattle native, Mr. Merrick began practicing law in 1950 and continued to visit his First Hill office until shortly before his death. When he turned 80, his partners named the firm's building after him. Mr. Merrick could frequently be found at Vito's, a watering hole that for years was a favorite hangout of lawyers, judges and politicians. He was a three-sport star at Seattle Prep, where he was inducted into the athletic hall of fame in 1998. He attended Seattle College, now Seattle University, and then pitched in the Chicago White Sox minor-league system, rising to the AAA level.

Former 9th Circuit Court of Appeals judge Eugene Wright died September 3 of pneumonia and congestive heart failure. He was 89. Judge Wright graduated from the University of Washington School of Law in 1937. He practiced with his father for four years before joining the Army, where he translated Japanese documents and interrogated prisoners in the South Pacific. Judge Wright was appointed to King County Superior Court in 1954 and served for 12 years, until President Nixon appointed him to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. Remembrances may be made to the Eugene A. Wright Scholarship Fund at the University of Washington School of Law (1100 NE Campus Parkway, Seattle, WA 98105).