January 2006

WyLD About You

by Noah Davis, 2005-2006 WYLD president

This edition of Bar News is a very special one indeed, having opened its pages to the WSBA Young Lawyers Division, absorbing the regular edition of De Novo, and permitting the WYLD word to reach an even broader, more diverse, and exceptionally wonderful-er audience — ahem — that’s you, of course.

For some, your time as a new lawyer undoubtedly seems like only yesterday (and really, for people like our former WYLD Prezzes J.D. Smith and Steve Marsalis, it really was). For others, as you look back over your longer careers, perhaps the feeling is more like yester-centennial.  But regardless of how much of a generational separation from the WYLD each of us may have, one of the more unique and cherished aspects of our fraternity of lawyers is that once in, we’re all in together — all joining the same vessel, and all becoming, in some way at least, responsible to keep this big ship we call “The Law” afloat (and, hopefully, headed in the right direction).

As for our navigational part, we (the WYLD) are the public-service arm of the WSBA. Many of the programs and activities of the 6,000-member-strong WYLD are geared toward a public good, a commitment that renews annually to local and state communities through such programs as family law, immigration and tent city clinics (where volunteer lawyers, both new and more experienced, provide free legal services to those in need); partnership projects with such entities as Habitat for Humanity, the YMCA (mock trial program), and Seattle University’s Access to Justice; the Greater Access and Assistance Project (GAAP, providing low-cost legal services); and our at-risk youth programming in grade schools and high schools (where we bring young lawyers and contemporary legal issues into the classroom).

The WYLD has offered public-service programming in such locales as Bellingham, Olympia, Spokane, Yakima, and King County, while continuing to expand to other Washington cities and counties with the dedicated support of a vigorous Board of Trustees (representing 11 districts and including our Prez-elect John Brangwin and law student trustees from each of the three Washington law schools).  Through our Board, the WYLD is wholly committed to reaching out to young lawyers all across Washington state (including current outreach attempts in Kitsap and Clark counties). With the help of our Board, all throughout the year (and on into the next), the WYLD will be working hard to be more inclusive, more representative, and more fun than ever before. 

As we embark on this course, and as I look around, I am proud to see so many of our young lawyers either rising to positions of leadership or having already acceded to those positions all throughout our legal communities, including, to name only a few, Tisha Pagalilauan with the Washington Women Lawyers, Joaquin Hernandez and Lael Echo-Hawk with the WSBA Committee for Diversity, Diankha Linear with the Loren Miller Bar Association, and Kim Tran with the Asian Bar Association of Washington. Young lawyers are truly seizing the day. And, that’s not to mention the hundreds of young lawyers who serve on WYLD and “Big Bar” committees, or who are involved in other county, minority, and specialty Bar positions of leadership (and trust me, there’s aplenty).

But, we have not gone at it alone. We’ve had great role models and wonderful Bar leadership behind us. While each one of the WSBA presidents I’ve met have been warm and welcoming towards young lawyers, our most recent four — Dave Savage, Ron Ward, Brooke Taylor, and President-elect Ellen Conedera Dial — have been magnificent. From the WSBA Leadership Institute, to President Taylor’s goal of returning civics to the classrooms, to the defense of the independence of the judiciary, our Bar leadership has been remarkable. 

Even beyond these individuals, it is you (the Bar as a whole) that has provided young lawyers the greatest opportunity to flourish. By including us, by recognizing us, and by giving us the forum to speak, it is you, the Bar membership, who have provided young lawyers the guidance, leadership, and inspiration they so sorely need. And it is you, the Bar membership, to whom we say “thank you.” 

We thank you for your unending commitment to young lawyers and your unabashed dedication to our legal and social communities. We thank the state’s judges for being so available and so helpful. And we thank all of you for your specialized attention and much-needed mentorship. 

As the WYLD works to engage our membership during the year with our theme, “WyLD About You,” we will be grounded in one additional theme: our unending gratitude to the “Big Bar” for lending its ears and its wisdom.  Whenever you help one young lawyer with rules and procedures, or whenever you assist our efforts in giving back to our communities by volunteering at a legal clinic, serving as a judge at the Trial Advocacy Program, or presenting at a CLE, you are helping not just one young lawyer, but all young lawyers.

And, because we’re all in this boat together, your warmly appreciated efforts to assist young lawyers help keep all of us headed in the right direction.
 
Noah Davis is managing member of In Pacta PLLC in Seattle. He can be reached at nd@inpacta.com.