Former Franklin High School Teacher Rick Nagel Receives WSBA Award of Merit

Seattle, Washington, September 13, 2001 — Rick Nagel, mock trial team coach at Seattle's Franklin High School, will receive the Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) Award of Merit today in Seattle. The Award of Merit is the WSBA's highest honor. It is given annually in recognition of long-term service to the Bar and the public by a lawyer or nonlawyer.

Mr. Nagel retired in June 2000 after teaching law and society classes at Franklin High School for almost 35 years. Since 1986, he has coached Franklin's mock-trial team. Under Mr. Nagel's direction, the eight-member team won the national championship in 2000, and returned in 2001 to take third place. Over the past three years, the team has won its last 12 consecutive national matches — the result of hundreds of hours of practice during the school year and during school breaks.

Many of Mr. Nagel's students have gone on to become lawyers, including King County Superior Court Judge Dean Lum. In a nomination letter, one of Mr. Nagel's co-workers wrote that "he has done much to promote understanding of our judicial system, and he has demanded and gotten first-rate work from his students." Another colleague wrote: "Rick Nagel loves his students. He loves the law. He has done more to advance a positive view of the legal profession than anyone I know."

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.