Seattle Attorney Ada Shen-Jaffe Receives Washington State Bar Association's Courageous Award

Seattle Washington, September 22, 2004 — The Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) announces that Seattle Attorney Ada Shen-Jaffe received the 2004 Courageous Award. The Courageous Award is presented to a lawyer who has displayed exceptional courage in the face of adversity, thus bringing credit to the legal profession. Former WSBA President Dale Carlisle presented the award to Ms. Shen-Jaffe September 16 at the WSBA Annual Awards Dinner at the Seattle Marriott Waterfront Hotel.

Ms. Shen-Jaffe holds a B.S. from Tufts University, an M.S. from Columbia University, and a J.D. from Suffolk University Law School in Boston. At Suffolk she was co-founder of the Suffolk Women's Law Caucus and editor of the Women's Law Caucus newsletter.

In her work, Ms. Shen-Jaffe has served poor and vulnerable people since her undergraduate days. From 1970 to 1971 she worked at Nassau Community Health Clinic in New York, an organization that addresses health and related socio-economic problems. From 1971 to 1972, she developed community health-education programs for New York City Health Services Administration. From 1975 to 1977, she was a staff attorney for Northwest Washington Legal Services. And for nearly 25 years, Ms. Shen-Jaffe has been a guiding force behind Columbia Legal Services (CLS) — which works in partnership with the federally funded Northwest Justice Project and pro bono and other legal services providers throughout Washington to provide legal services to low-income and vulnerable people — and its predecessor, Evergreen Legal Services (ELS). From 1979 to 1981 she was staff attorney and coordinator of statewide legal services for ELS, from 1981 to 1986 its deputy director, and from 1986 to 1996 its director. Then, in 1996, after the loss of federal funding, CLS was created from the merger of three Washington state legal services organizations (Spokane Legal Services Center, Puget Sound Legal Assistance Foundation, and ELS), and Ms. Shen-Jaffe assumed its directorship. She held that post until July of this year, when, faced with choosing between federal funds that brought with them restrictions on representing the most vulnerable people in the state, and running the program without those federal funds, she chose the latter, and voluntarily laid herself off to save funding for the program. (Read her letter explaining her decision.)

Over the years her service on both a state and a national level has been extraordinary. She has served on the five-member national Legal Services Corporation Transition Team in Washington, D.C.; the Judicial Arbitration and Mediation Services National Legal Services Talk Force in San Francisco; the WSBA Governance Task Force; the WSBA Access to Justice Task Force; the National Center for Law and Social Policy Board of Directors in Washington, D.C.; the National Legal Aid and Defender Association Board of Directors in Washington, D.C.; the LAW Fund Board of Directors; the Bush School Board of Trustees; the Governor's Task Force on Child Support and Related Issues; the National Legal Aid and Defender Association Management Project Advisory Board; the Western Regional Training Center Advisory Board; the National Center on Women and Family Law Board of Directors; the Federal Judicial Screening Panel; and the National Conference on Women and the Law Steering Committee.

No stranger to awards, Ms. Shen-Jaffe received the Girl Scouts Totem Council 2000 Distinguished Women of Achievement Award; the 1996 Washington Women Lawyers Award; the 1996 Rainier Foundation Service Award; the 1995 ABA Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award; the 1995 University of Washington Chapter Honorary Sergeant-at-Law, Order of the Coif; the 1994 WSBA President's Award; the 1993 Northwest Women's Law Center Florence Merrick Award; and the 1975-1977 Reginald Heber-Smith Community Lawyer Fellowship.

Scott Smith, chair of the Washington State Access to Justice Board, who nominated Ms. Shen-Jaffe for the award, called her "one of the prime visionaries in our state" and spoke of her "decades-long fight to make sure that no one is written off in our justice system . . . despite strong and continual opposition by powerful foes of equal justice. . . . Ada has authored or co-authored virtually every key foundational document that governs the work of our state's Civil Equal Justice Network."

About the WSBA
The Washington State Bar Association is a private, nonprofit organization authorized by the Washington State Supreme Court to license the state's 28,400 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 president is Ronald R. Ward of Seattle. 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, 23 sections, and a Young Lawyers Division.

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