Seattle Attorney Rochelle Kleinberg-Goffe Receives Washington State Bar Association Angelo Petruss Award for Lawyers in Public Service

Seattle Washington, September 16, 2003—At its Annual Awards Dinner held September 11 in conjunction with its Annual Business Meeting at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center in Seattle, the Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) honored Rochelle Kleinberg-Goffe with its Angelo Petruss Award for Lawyers in Public Service. Named in honor of Angelo R. Petruss, a senior assistant attorney general who died during his term of service on the WSBA Board of Governors, this award is presented for significant contributions by a lawyer in government service to the legal profession, the system of justice, and the public.

Early in her legal career, Rochelle Kleinberg-Goffe served as a law clerk for the late Washington State Supreme Court Justice Charles Horowitz. Currently an associate regional solicitor for the Department of Labor, Ms. Kleinberg-Goff has, for 30 years, "served the public with passion and commitment, and the practice of law with dignity, respect, and creativity," said nominator Carol S. Gown. "She has been a passionate advocate for the rights of workers—their rights to be paid fairly, to work in a safe environment, to be able to report dangerous conditions without retaliation. Her high ethical standards, her determination to use the highest quality legal services in the public's interest, her mentoring and training of numerous attorneys in the public sector, her fairness, her good judgment, and her tireless dedication to the under-represented while dealing with the limited resources of public practice are some of the reasons Rochelle deserves the Angelo Petruss Award."

Ms. Kleinberg-Goffe received her J.D. in 1972 from University of Washington School of Law, and her entire career since then has been in public service. "To me, the most impressive aspect of Rochelle's career has been her complete devotion to quality legal work," said attorney Christopher E. Young. "She is an extremely good attorney who could have had multiple higher paying jobs in the private sector. She has chosen public service for personal reasons, and our profession has benefited from that choice."

About the Washington State Bar Association
The Washington State Bar Association is a private, nonprofit organization authorized by the Washington Supreme Court to license the state's 27,600 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.

The governance of the WSBA is vested in its 14-person Board of Governors. There are three governors from the seventh congressional district; one from each of the other eight districts; and three at-large members, one of whom represents the Young Lawyers Division. The current president is J. Richard Manning of Seattle, and the president-elect is David Savage of Pullman. The board meets every six weeks at various locations around the state, and its meetings are open to the public. Much of the work of the WSBA is carried out through its 23 standing committees, 24 sections, and a Young Lawyers Division.

# # #