FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 16, 2000

CONTACT
Judith Berrett, Director of Communications
206-727-8212
e-mail: judithb@wsba.org

Washington State Bar Association Board of Governors to Meet May 19-20 in Yakima

Seattle, Washington, May 16, 2000 - The Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) Board of Governors will hold its next meeting at Cavanaugh's at Yakima Center May 19 – 20. Governor Stephen T. Osborne of Kennewick represents WSBA members from the fourth congressional district.

The Board of Governors, the body responsible for the governance of the WSBA, meets every six weeks at various locations around the state. Its meetings are open to the public.

Items on the agenda include discussions about the possibility of adding two new positions to the Board of Governors (a lawyer of diversity and a representative from the Young Lawyers Division); presentation of the annual report from the Office of Disciplinary Counsel (the WSBA department that handles lawyer complaints); a discussion of the death penalty, including a Status Report on the Death Penalty in Washington State written by Chief Justice Richard P. Guy; and consideration of a proposed definition of the practice of law for regulatory purposes.

Governors are elected for three-year terms by members of the Washington State Bar Association, a nonprofit organization authorized by the Washington State Supreme Court to license the state's 25,000 lawyers. Lawyers must be members of the Washington State Bar Association in order to practice law in Washington. There are three governors from the seventh congressional district, and one from each of the other eight districts. The current President of the WSBA is Spokane attorney Richard C. Eymann.

The Washington State Bar Association both regulates lawyers under the authority of the Court and serves its members as a professional association - all without public funding. As a regulatory agency, the WSBA administers the bar examination, provides record-keeping and licensing functions, and administers the lawyer discipline program. As a professional association, it provides continuing legal education for attorneys, in addition to numerous other educational and member-service activities.