FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 10, 2001
CONTACT
Allison Parker
206-733-5932
allisonp@wsba.org
Washington State Bar Association Board of Governors To Meet January 19 in Olympia
Seattle, Washington, January 10, 2001 — The Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) Board of Governors will hold its next meeting January 19 at the WestCoast Olympia Hotel in Olympia. The meeting will be held from 2:45-5:00 p.m. and is open to the public. Prior to the meeting, the Board of Governors will meet with the Washington Supreme Court. There will also be a luncheon with the Thurston County Bar Association, where an Olympia-area lawyer will be honored as a "local hero."
In September, the Board of Governors voted to add a seat on the Board — a representative of diversity. This month, they will discuss appropriate procedures for selecting that representative within the guidelines of the WSBA Bylaws. The Board will also discuss recommendations made by the WSBA Court Improvement Committee in response to the Board of Judicial Administration's Project 2001 proposals.
The Washington State Bar Association is a private, nonprofit organization authorized by the Washington Supreme Court to license the state's 26,500 lawyers. Lawyers must be members of the WSBA in order to practice law in the state. Governors are elected for three-year terms by members of the Association — 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 Seattle lawyer Jan Eric Peterson, and the president-elect is Dale Carlisle of Tacoma. Olympia lawyer Stephen J. Henderson is the WSBA governor representing third congressional district.
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.
