FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 11, 2006
Contact Dené Canter
Member and Community Relations Department
206-727-8213; denec@wsba.org
Nancy C. Ivarinen Receives 2006 WSBA Courageous Award
Seattle, Washington, September 11, 2006 ¡ª The Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) announces that attorney Nancy C. Ivarinen will receive the 2005 WSBA 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. 2005-2006 WSBA President S. Brooke Taylor will present the award to Ivarinen at the WSBA Annual Awards Dinner, to be held on September 14, 2006, at the Madison Renaissance Hotel in Seattle.
Ivarinen receives the Courageous Award for her contributions to the legal profession and activism for access to justice, while overcoming a severe hearing impairment. She was born with conductive hearing loss, and throughout her life, her hearing has continued to deteriorate. In 2002 her hearing impairment was substantially corrected when she received a Baha bone anchored system for both ears, the first such surgery in the Pacific Northwest. Her hearing impairment, however, has not deterred her from excelling in the legal profession or helping others. She has devoted countless pro bono hours to low-income clients, primarily those with landlord-tenant and elder abuse issues.
Ivarinen is a volunteer attorney with Whatcom County¡¯s LAW Advocates, has developed a Street Law clinical program that allows paralegal students to work with volunteer lawyers to provide free legal services to students at Whatcom County Community College, serves on the Pro Bono Steering Committee of Skagit County Bar Association, provides continuing legal education instruction to attorneys, and serves as gratis landlord-tenant instructor for landlords participating in Bellingham Police Department¡¯s Crime Prevention Program. She is appointed by the Washington State Supreme Court to serve on the Practice of Law Board.
Ivarinen graduated from the University of Montana School of Law with a Juris Doctorate in 1988. After graduation, she took a staff attorney position with Idaho Legal Aid Services, Inc. From 1992 to 1995, she worked for Evergreen Legal Services in Bellingham. She had a general practice with Fairhaven Legal Associates, P.S. from 1996 to 2006, including real estate, collections, evictions, liens, construction law, consumer law, contracts, landlord-tenant, wills, and probate. She has also served as the city attorney for the town of Concrete, Washington, as an instructor at Skagit Valley Community College, and as an instructor and coordinator for the Administration of Justice and Paralegal Studies Programs at Whatcom Community College. She recently left private practice to join the Bellingham office of Northwest Justice Project as the Project SAFER (domestic violence) attorney.
¡°Nancy¡¯s courage and strength have been consistently directed by her generous spirit and desire to help people. Despite her own challenges, she eagerly comes to the rescue of others,¡± said Mount Vernon attorney Janice Mikkelborg.
About the WSBA
The WSBA is part of the judicial branch, exercising a governmental function authorized by the Washington State Supreme Court to license the state¡¯s 29,800 lawyers. The WSBA both regulates lawyers under the authority of the Court and serves its members as a professional association ¨D all without public funding.
As a regulatory agency, it administers the bar admission process, including the bar exam; provides record-keeping and licensing functions; and administers the lawyer-discipline system. 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 2006-2007 president is Ellen Conedera Dial, of Seattle, and the 2006-2007 president-elect is Stanley A. Bastian, of Wenatchee.
The Board meets regularly (every six weeks) at various locations around the state, and its meetings are open to the public. Much of the work of the Bar is carried out through 23 standing committees; 26 sections; and a Young Lawyers Division, with its many committees.
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