May 2008
The Alliance for Equal Justice
by The Honorable Greg Tripp
Washington’s Alliance for Equal Justice (Alliance) is a network of more than 30 organizations providing and supporting civil legal aid for those with nowhere else to turn. Formed to coordinate and foster collaboration in the equal justice community, Alliance provider organizations are staffed pro bono programs, staffed legal aid offices, and specialty legal aid programs which deliver critically needed legal services — information, advice, and representation — to roughly 30,000 low-income people each year. Organizations supporting the Alliance complement this direct service work through educating the public, providing financial support and accountability, strategic planning, technological improvements, effective communications, and legislative advocacy.
The following describes core participants in the Alliance — this list is not exhaustive. The Alliance is a growing and changing network of organizations that welcomes new partners in the equal justice movement. Visit www.
allianceforequaljustice.org to learn more about the Alliance for Equal Justice.
Legal Aid Providers
“Civil Legal Aid” refers to free legal services designed to help low-income individuals, families, and communities resolve important civil legal problems. Alliance providers deliver a range of civil legal aid services, including advice, brief service, and direct representation to low-income people with important legal problems. Legal aid providers serve as resources to low-income communities and the community at large, providing information and education about rights and responsibilities under the law. Working with courts, social and human service organizations, and the community to ensure fair treatment and equal access to justice for their clients, legal aid providers are a community-based deterrent to illegal practices, thereby protecting the community’s most vulnerable members. Core Alliance providers include the following.
Pro Bono Programs (also called Volunteer Lawyer Programs)
Pro bono programs coordinate the services of volunteer lawyers providing a continuum of services from brief advice in clinics to extended representation in court. Every year, hundreds of pro bono attorneys donate roughly 58,000 hours of free legal assistance, valued at more than $10 million. There are 21 pro bono programs in Washington.
Asotin County Legal Services
Georgina Kinyon, coordinator
Benton-Franklin Legal Aid Society
Barbara Otte, executive director
Blue Mountain Action Council Volunteer Attorney Program
Cheri Cosper, coordinator
Chelan-Douglas County Volunteer Attorney Services
John Brett, director
Clallam-Jefferson County Pro Bono Lawyers
Nancy Rohde, director
Clark County Volunteer Lawyers Program
Susan Arney, director
Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Legal Aid
Anita Quirk, coordinator
Eastside Legal Assistance Program
Jennie Bigley, director
King County Bar Foundation Community Volunteer Legal Services
Val Carlson, director
Kitsap Legal Services
Alisha Freeman, executive director
Legal Assistance by Whatcom (LAW) Advocates
Mary Swenson, executive director
Lewis County Bar Legal Aid
Larry Cook, executive director
North Columbia Volunteer Attorney Services
Gina Yañez, legal coordinator
Skagit County Community Action Agency Volunteer Legal Services Program
Catherine Brown, program manager
Snohomish County Legal Services
Threesa Milligan, executive director
Spokane County Bar Association Volunteer Lawyer Program
Kellee Spangenberg, coordinator
Tacoma-Pierce County Bar Association Volunteer Legal Services Program
Laurie Davenport, director
Thurston County Volunteer Legal Services Foundation
Scott Douglas, director
Volunteer Lawyer Program of Island County
Michelle Cook and Cristin Head, directors
Whitman County Legal Services Community Action Center
Gene Siple, coordinator
Yakima County Volunteer Attorney Services
Nieves Negrete, program manager
Staffed and Specialty Legal Aid Providers
Northwest Justice Project (NJP)
César Torres, executive director
The Northwest Justice Project is a statewide legal aid organization that provides legal aid services to people with low incomes. NJP is the largest civil legal aid provider in Washington—it serves about 19,000 eligible low-income people every year. NJP operates the state’s intake and referral process — through CLEAR (Coordinated Legal Education, Advice and Referral) and 211 (King County’s community information hotline) — and online self-help resource, Washington Law Help. www.nwjustice.org.
Columbia Legal Services (CLS)
John Midgley, executive director
Columbia Legal Services is a statewide legal aid program that provides civil legal aid services in areas of critical legal need, often for groups or large numbers of clients. The six offices of CLS provide advice and education, representation in negotiations and court proceedings, and representation of clients before governmental bodies such as administrative agencies and legislatures. www.columbialegal.org.
Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP)
Matt Adams, interim executive director
Northwest Immigrant Rights Project provides comprehensive immigration legal services and community education to advance the rights and well-being of low-income immigrants living in Washington. NWIRP focuses on providing legal representation, and provides training and workshops to the immigrant communities throughout the state and to service providers who work closely with immigrant communities in Washington. www.nwirp.org.
TeamChild
Anne Lee, executive director
TeamChild is a nonprofit agency that provides free civil legal representation and community education to help youth involved in the juvenile justice system secure the education, health, housing, and other support they need to achieve positive outcomes in their lives. TeamChild’s work enhances young people’s access to support in the community and reduces their juvenile justice involvement. TeamChild provides a full continuum of civil legal representation to more than 1,000 indigent youth every year. www.teamchild.org.
Northwest Health Law Advocates
Janet Varon, executive director
Northwest Health Law Advocates promotes increased access to health care and basic healthcare rights and protections for all individuals through legal and policy advocacy, education, and support to community organizations in the Pacific Northwest. www.nohla.org.
Unemployment Law Project
Marc Lampson, director
The Unemployment Law Project provides free legal assistance and information to people who have been denied unemployment benefits or whose right to those benefits is being challenged. Offices in Seattle and Spokane will provide information and advice to anyone with a Washington state claim and will directly represent individuals in specifically chosen cases. www.unemploymentlawproject.org.
Solid Ground
Evonne Zook, director of the Family Assistance Program
Solid Ground is a community organization with more than 30 programs working to eliminate poverty, prejudice, and neglect. The Family Assistance Program provides information and referral, advice, and direct legal representation to individuals who have had their state public assistance benefits reduced, terminated, or denied. www.solid-ground.org.
Legal Action Center (LAC)
Mark Chattin, director
The Legal Action Center’s mission is to reduce homelessness by preventing illegal or unnecessary evictions and/or housing subsidy terminations. LAC also provides assistance to tenants who are facing barriers to obtaining housing because of alleged debts to past landlords and other landlord-tenant issues. LAC uses a combination of full-time staff, volunteer attorneys, and law students to achieve these goals. www.lac.org.
Seattle Community Law Center
Liz Ligon, executive director
The Seattle Community Law Center provides legal assistance to low-income and homeless individuals in the region related to their eligibility for disability benefits. The Center simultaneously works to address the short-term problems of their clients and advocates for long-term social change. www.seattlecommlaw.org.
Alliance Supporters
The Alliance receives broad support from the legal community, government leaders, businesses, law-enforcement officials, healthcare providers, educators, and community- and faith-based organizations. Whereas Alliance providers are programs whose primary mission is to provide civil legal aid, Alliance supporters complement direct service work in critical ways. Supporters work broadly to provide policy development and oversight; educate the public about the importance of civil legal aid; ensure stable and sufficient financial support; and provide planning, fundraising, technical, communications, and strategic support to the Alliance.
Washington State Supreme Court
The Honorable Gerry L. Alexander, chief justice
The Washington State Supreme Court is our state’s highest court. Members include Chief Justice Gerry L. Alexander and Justices Tom Chambers, Mary E. Fairhurst, Charles W. Johnson, James M. Johnson, Barbara R. Madsen, Susan J. Owens, Richard B. Sanders, and Debra L. Stephens. The Supreme Court has been a leader in this state and throughout the country in its active support of the justice system. www.courts.wa.gov.
Washington State Bar Association (WSBA)
Paula Littlewood, executive director
The Washington State Bar Association supports the Alliance by housing and staffing the Access to Justice Board and hosting the annual Access to Justice Conference. The WSBA also provides funding and support for the Pro Bono and Legal Aid Committee and its initiatives, such as the Emeritus Attorney Program; CLE credits for pro bono service; and raising awareness of RPC 6.1 pro bono publico. The WSBA is part of the judicial branch, exercising a governmental function authorized by the Washington State Supreme Court to license the state’s more than 32,000 lawyers. www.wsba.org.
Access to Justice Board (ATJ Board)
Judge Greg Tripp, chair; Joan Fairbanks, director
In response to a growing need to provide continuity and focus for the access to justice efforts in Washington, the Access to Justice Board was established by the Washington State Supreme Court in 1994 at the request of the Washington State Bar Association. The ATJ Board works to achieve equal access to the civil justice system for those facing economic and other significant barriers by coordinating the efforts of the Alliance for Equal Justice, and through the work of its 12 standing committees. The ATJ Board is administered by the Washington State Bar Association. www.wsba.org/atj.
Access to Justice Board Members:Daniel S. Gottlieb (chair-elect), M. Wayne Blair, Gregory R. Dallaire, Judge Elizabeth Fry, Judge Steven C. González, Millicent D. Newhouse, Nieves Negrete, and Bruce W. Reeves
Committees of the Access to Justice Board:Access to Justice Conference Planning Committee — Colleen Kinerk, chair; Communications Committee — Michele Storms, chair; Equal Justice Coalition — Scott A. Smith, chair; Greater Access and Assistance Program (GAAP) — Rachelle Anderson and Jennifer Harris, co-chairs; Impediments to Access to Justice Committee — Judge Greg Sypolt and David Lord, co-chairs; Law School Relations Committee — Lynn Greiner and Steve Fredrickson, co-chairs; Nominating and Leadership Development Committee — Dan Gottlieb and Nieves Negrete, co-chairs; Performance Assessment and Accountability Committee; Pro Se Committee — Judge Brian Watkins and Millicent Newhouse, co-chairs; State Plan Oversight Committee — Greg Dallaire, chair; Statewide Website Advisory Group — Sue Encherman and Danielle Rebar, co-chairs; Technology Committee — Donald Horowitz, chair.
Legal Foundation of Washington (LFW)
Caitlin Davis Carlson, executive director
Created by the Washington State Supreme Court in 1984, the Legal Foundation of Washington supports the Alliance by funding programs and supporting policies and initiatives which enable the poor and the most vulnerable to overcome barriers in the civil justice system. The LFW administers IOLTA funds and charitable support from the Campaign for Equal Justice to more than 30 programs through its annual grant process. www.legalfoundation.org.
Campaign for Equal Justice (C4EJ)
Karen Falkingham, director
The Campaign for Equal Justice is the civil legal aid community’s united effort to raise charitable contributions from the private bar and beyond for Washington’s more than 30 legal aid programs. The Campaign eliminates competition for funding among legal aid programs and simplifies giving by ending donor confusion over which deserving program to support. www.c4ej.org.
Office of Civil Legal Aid (OCLA)
Jim Bamberger, director
Created by the Legislature in 2005, the Washington State Office of Civil Legal Aid (OCLA) is an independent judicial branch agency that administers and oversees the use of state funds appropriated by the Legislature for civil legal aid. OCLA contracts with the Northwest Justice Project (NJP) to help underwrite NJP’s regional client service offices, the statewide CLEAR client intake system, the statewide legal services self-help website, advocacy coordination, and training for legal aid advocates throughout the state. OCLA is overseen by a bipartisan Civil Legal Aid Oversight Committee. www.ocla.wa.gov.
Legal Services Corporation (LSC)
Helaine M. Barnett, president
The Legal Services Corporation provides funding to each state based on the number of people living in poverty, as well as grants for legal assistance to Native American and migrant farm worker communities. Congress created LSC in 1974 to provide financial support to nonprofit organizations that provide civil legal aid to low-income people throughout the nation. The Northwest Justice Project is the sole recipient of LSC funds in Washington. www.lsc.gov.
Board for Judicial Administration (BJA)
Chief Justice Gerry Alexander, chair; Judge Vickie Churchill, member chair
The Board for Judicial Administration is charged with providing effective leadership to the state courts and developing policy to enhance the administration of the court system in Washington state. Judges serving on the Board pursue the best interests of the judiciary at large in representing the more than 400 elected and appointed judges presiding at four levels: the Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, Superior Courts, and District and Municipal Courts.
Justice in Jeopardy Initiative
Coalition of Justice System Partners
The Board for Judicial Administration (BJA) spearheads the Justice in Jeopardy Initiative, the most direct and cohesive effort ever undertaken to substantially alter and improve court funding in Washington. A natural progression of the BJA’s 2002 Court Funding Task Force, the Justice in Jeopardy Initiative is a coalition of justice system partners focused on increasing state and local funding for our trial courts, civil legal aid, and our public-defender systems. www.courts.wa.gov.
Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC)
Interim State Court Administrator Jeff Hall
The Administrative Office of the Courts was established by the 1957 Legislature and operates under the direction and supervision of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, pursuant to Chapter 2.56 RCW, to advance the efficient and effective operation of the Washington judicial system. The AOC provides administrative support and leadership as a partner in the Justice in Jeopardy Initiative. www.courts.wa.gov.
Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH)
Roosevelt Currie, chief administrative law judge
The Office of Administrative Hearings is an independent state agency made up of 74 administrative law judges who conduct impartial administrative hearings for Washington’s citizens and governmental agencies. www.oah.wa.gov.
Washington State Human Rights Commission (WSHRC)
Marc Brenman, executive director
The mission of the Washington State Human Rights Commission is to eliminate and prevent discrimination through the fair application of the law, the efficient use of resources, and the establishment of partnerships with the community. The WSHRC enforces the broadest civil rights statute in the nation. WSHRC is a state agency headquartered in Olympia. More information can be obtained at www.hum.wa.gov (the complaint process can be initiated online) and 800-233-3247.
County, Minority, and Specialty Bar Associations
There are active voluntary bar associations — professional, organized bodies of lawyers — throughout Washington. Many of these help to recruit attorneys to do pro bono work. A complete list can be found at www.wsba.org/lawyers/groups/guide.
Washington’s Law Schools
Students and faculty at the law schools of Gonzaga University (Dean Earl Martin), Seattle University (Dean Kellye Y. Testy), and the University of Washington (Interim Dean Gregory A. Hicks), are a valuable resource for Alliance members and their clients. Programs such as the Gonzaga Center for Law and Justice, Seattle University’s Access to Justice Institute, and the University of Washington’s William H. Gates Public Service Law Program play a crucial role in ensuring continued commitment to access to justice in Washington by instilling a passion for public interest law in young lawyers. Visit www.law.gonzaga.edu, www.law.seattleu.edu, and www.law.washington.edu for more information.
This article is designed to be a brief overview of the Alliance. Please visit the respective websites for additional information.
The Honorable Greg Tripp is completing his second year as chair of the Access to Justice Board and his seventh year as a member of the Board. He currently serves as a Spokane County District Court judge. Judge Tripp also served as chair of the Legal Foundation of Washington Board of Trustees for four years.
Washington Law Help
Washington Law Help is a free online resource (www.washingtonlawhelp.org) that provides legal educational materials and self-help tools that assist people in navigating the legal system and finding solutions to their civil legal problems. The site contains do-it-yourself packets containing instructions and necessary forms for pro se litigants to use in family law, landlord-tenant, government benefit, estate planning, and a variety of other common civil cases. Several hundred “know your rights” publications and links to other relevant content are also available. Visitors seeking legal assistance can access a statewide directory of legal aid programs by county. There is a Spanish version of the site, as well as translations of many resources in other languages. In 2007, there were more than 247,000 unique visits to the website and 1.8 million page views. Washington Law Help is a public service provided by the Northwest Justice Project, in collaboration with other legal service providers in the Alliance and the Washington Courts. For more information, contact Danielle Rebar at danieller@nwjustice.org.
The Equal Justice Coalition
The Equal Justice Coalition (EJC) educates policymakers and the public about the importance of civil legal aid in our communities, and advocates for sufficient public funding for civil legal aid on behalf of low-income people living in Washington. The EJC is a non-partisan, broad-based organization working statewide to ensure that all people are treated equally and fairly before the law. Since 1995, the EJC has been a standing committee of the Access to Justice Board. The EJC is composed of a core volunteer work group, an advisory council, member organizations, and hundreds of individual friends of equal justice who know that the health of our democracy depends on equal justice for all.
Originally formed to combat slashed federal funding for civil legal aid in the 1990s, the coalition’s role — representing Washington’s low-income and legal-aid communities to our elected officials — remains indispensable. Success at increasing resources for civil legal aid is made possible by building a strong base of support within the legal community and beyond. This past year, the Equal Justice Coalition received an award from the American Bar Association for Grassroots Advocacy.
Visit www.ejc.org to join us in support of civil legal aid. We have a lot of work to do. Every day, more than 80 percent of our low-income and vulnerable neighbors face serious legal problems without any help. We must continue moving forward so that justice for all becomes a reality in Washington — because it’s not justice if it’s not equal.
The Campaign for Equal Justice: Did You Know?
Number of years the Campaign for Equal Justice has been in existence, including 2008: 4
Number of volunteers statewide who asked their friends and colleagues to support the Campaign for Equal Justice in 2007: 134
Number of counties that had donors contributing to the Campaign for Equal Justice in 2007: 30
Number of civil legal aid programs supported by the Campaign for Equal Justice in 2008: 30
Number of Cy Pres Award contributions directed to the Campaign for Equal Justice in 2007: 4
Most successful local Campaign for Equal Justice fund drive in 2007: Snohomish County, with 15 percent of the legal community donating
Second most successful local drive in 2007: Whatcom County, with 13 percent of the legal community contributing
Number of contributions the Campaign asks you to make to its drive in a single year: 1
Number of times Co-Chairs Gary Locke and Slade Gorton will write to you to ask for your gift: Up to 3, depending on when you give
Largest source of revenue to the Campaign for Equal Justice: Individual donors comprise 32 percent of all annual giving
Percentage of annual Campaign revenue provided by law firms statewide: 28 percent
Average number of hours volunteer callers contribute to raising Campaign funds each year: 5
Average number of calling assignments given to volunteer callers: 7
