Joseph H. Gordon Sr. Receives WSBA Lifetime Service Award

Seattle, Washington, September 13, 2001 — Tacoma lawyer Joseph H. Gordon Sr. will receive the Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) Lifetime Service Award today in Seattle. This award is given in recognition of an exceptional body of work and service to the legal profession and the public.

In 1935, Joseph Gordon Sr. joined his father to form the two-person law firm then known as Gordon & Gordon. Today, Gordon Thomas Honeywell Malanca Peterson & Daheim is one of the 10 largest firms in Washington, and includes 80 lawyers in Tacoma and Seattle. Early in his career, Mr. Gordon believed that clients would be better served by a large firm with multiple specialties. He was the firm's visionary and catalyst for growth. Since 1987 he has been of counsel to his firm, and maintains regular office hours four days per week, nine months per year.

Mr. Gordon's dedication to all levels of the Bar is legendary. He has served as president of the Tacoma-Pierce County Bar Association and the Western States Bar Association, and served on the boards of the Washington State Bar Association, American Bar Association (ABA), American Bar Endowment, American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, and the American Bar Foundation. He was treasurer of the ABA from 1965 to 1972. Mr. Gordon continues to work on ABA projects and has attended more than 100 consecutive meetings of the ABA House of Delegates in the last 50 years. In 1996, he received the Fellows of the American Bar Foundation 50-Year Award for his service to the American Bar Association.

For more than 60 years, Mr. Gordon has been an actively involved with the Tacoma Rotary Club, Tacoma First Presbyterian Church, and the Tacoma Chamber of Commerce. In his nomination letter, WSBA President-elect Dale Carlisle wrote: "Joe does not just join an organization. He participates actively, even after all this time.… The fact that he continues to do so at age 92 is a tribute to his zest for life, to his profession and to the practice of law."

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.