Washington State Bar Association and Access to Justice Board to Host Conference in Wenatchee

Seattle, Washington, June 5, 2001 — Members of Washington's access to justice (ATJ) community, which includes lawyers, judges, court clerks and courthouse facilitators, law school faculty, paralegals, and representatives from community services programs, will gather at the West Coast Wenatchee Convention Center June 8-10 for the sixth annual Access to Justice Conference. The conference theme is "Voices for Justice." The WSBA's annual Bar Leaders Conference will be held concurrently. Combined attendance at the two conferences is expected to be approximately 275. Members of the press are welcome to attend. Members of the public wishing to attend should contact Sharlene Steele at 206-727-8262.

The plenary session on Saturday morning, "Strategies for Improvement to the Judicial Selection Process," features a panel discussion moderated by Denny Heck, president of TV Washington. Distinguished panelists include Supreme Court Justices Tom Chambers, Susan Owens and Charles Z. Smith; Judge Marlin Appelwick of the Court of Appeals; Everett Billingslea, general counsel to the Governor's Office; Charlie Wiggins of the American Judicature Society; and Dr. Ruth Walsh McIntyre, former TV journalist and chair of the Walsh Commission (the Walsh Commission was created by the Washington Supreme Court in the mid-1990s to study ways to improve the operations of the courts and the selection of judges).

Founder and executive director of the Institute on Race & Poverty john powell [sic] will be the keynote speaker Saturday evening. Established in 1993, the institute is a strategic research center located at the University of Minnesota Law School and is directly addressing the underlying causes of the problems created at the intersection of racial injustice and poverty.

The Access to Justice Board will present two awards at the conference. In recognition of its series "Race in the Yakima Valley," the Yakima Herald-Republic will be honored with the 2001 Civil Equal Justice Community Partnership Award. Accepting the award will be Managing Editor Bob Cryder. The Judicial Leadership Award will be presented to Judge T.W. "Chip" Small by Justice Tom Chambers. Judge Small, who serves in the Chelan County Superior Court, is former chair of the ATJ Board and has a long history of commitment to equal access to justice for all.

The Washington State Access to Justice Board was established by the Washington State Supreme Court in 1994, at the request of the Washington State Bar Association's Board of Governors. The ATJ Board was founded in response to a growing need to coordinate the access to justice efforts throughout the state and to ensure continuity and focus. Its mandate is to assure access to the civil justice system for low- and moderate-income Washington residents. The board consists of nine attorneys nominated by the Washington State Bar Association Board of Governors and appointed by the Supreme Court. Seattle attorney Michele Jones is currently chair of the ATJ Board.

The Washington State Bar Association is a private, nonprofit organization authorized by the Washington Supreme Court to license the state's 26,500 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. Current president of the WSBA is Seattle attorney Jan Eric Peterson, and president-elect is Dale Carlisle of Tacoma.