FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 31, 2002
CONTACT
Allison Parker
Communications Specialist
206-733-5932
allisonp@wsba.org
Yakima Lawyer Mirta Laura Contreras Receives Local Hero Award
Seattle, Washington, May 31, 2002 — Mirta Laura Contreras will receive the Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) Local Hero Award in recognition of outstanding service to farmworkers and women in Yakima County. WSBA President Dale L. Carlisle will present the award at the Board of Governors meeting in Yakima on June 7. The WSBA Local Hero Award is presented to lawyers who have made noteworthy contributions to their communities.
Ms. Contreras has been a lawyer with the Yakima office of Columbia Legal Services for the last 10 years. She has dedicated her career to helping farmworker women, a passion that stems from her childhood spent working in Yakima Valley fields with her parents and extended family. She began representing farmworker victims of domestic violence in 1999. Since then, she has assisted numerous battered immigrant victims and children with custody matters, accessing immigration remedies under the Violence Against Women Act, and seeking non-traditional court remedies for domestic-violence issues. Ms. Contreras heads Amigas Unidas Project, working with community leaders to provide outreach and education to farmworker victims of domestic violence, and is a board member for the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
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.
