Mark Panitch Appointed Editor of Washington State Bar News

Seattle, Washington, December 19, 2000 — The Washington State Bar Association is pleased to welcome Seattle lawyer Mark Panitch as editor of Bar News magazine. Mr. Panitch brings to this position a wealth of experience in journalism and law.

As the Washington correspondent for the Anchorage Daily News, he was part of a team of writers that won the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for their coverage of the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. Mr. Panitch has also written for the Associated Press and McGraw-Hill Publications. He was a press secretary for Senator Joseph Montoya during his tenure on the Watergate Committee, and a speechwriter for Secretary of the Interior Cecil Andrus.

Highlights of Mr. Panitch's law career include working as a Washington assistant attorney general, an organized crime prosecutor in New York, and a judge pro tem in Seattle Municipal Court. He also worked as a lawyer in the WSBA Office of Disciplinary Counsel. Mr. Panitch has been both a felony prosecutor and a felony public defender, and has worked on both sides of the mountains. He currently volunteers with the King County Bar Association Spanish Language Neighborhood Legal Clinic, and is in private practice.

Bar News is published monthly and has a circulation of approximately 23,000. It is the official publication of the Washington State Bar Association.

The Washington State Bar Association is a private, nonprofit organization authorized by the Washington State Supreme Court to license the state's 26,000 lawyers. The WSBA 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, it administers the bar exam, provides record-keeping and licensing functions, and administers the lawyer discipline program. As a professional association, the WSBA provides continuing legal education for attorneys, in addition to numerous other educational and member-service activities.