WSBA Leadership Institute Wins 2005 ABA Partnership Program Award

Seattle, Washington, September 22, 2005 — The Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) Leadership Institute was named one of four recipients of the American Bar Association's (ABA) 2005 Partnership Program Awards. This prestigious award, which recognizes efforts by bar associations throughout the country to increase diversity in the legal profession, was presented at the ABA Annual Meeting held August 4-9 in Chicago. This being the WSBA Leadership Institute's inaugural year makes the award especially noteworthy.

The mission of the WSBA Leadership Institute is to recruit and train Washington attorneys for leadership positions who have been admitted to practice for 10 years or less in the legal community and in the WSBA. Significant features of the program include its core curriculum, which combines professional development leadership techniques; seminar modules and experiential-based learning not typically found in law school classrooms; and the Leadership Institute Handbook. Program participants (fellows) are selected with an emphasis on diversity, although all applicants meeting the selection criteria are considered.

On hand to receive the award were — pictured from left to right — M. Janice Michels, WSBA executive director; Ronald R. Ward, 2004-2005 WSBA president and founder of the Leadership Institute; Joslyn K. N. Donlin, WSBA diversity advocate, and Seattle attorney James F. Williams, chair of the Leadership Institute Advisory Board.

The WSBA Institute Advisory Board is composed of attorneys, non-attorneys and judges with diverse backgrounds from throughout the state, and the Institute is supported by WSBA Diversity Advocate Joslyn Donlin. The next WSBA Leadership Institute will begin in January 2006. For further information, please see the WSBA Leadership Institute webpage.

About the WSBA
The Washington State Bar Association is an instrumentality of the state exercising a governmental function authorized by the Washington State Supreme Court to license the state's 29,200 lawyers. The WSBA both regulates lawyers under the authority of the Court and serves its members as a professional association Ż 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 2005-2006 president is S. Brooke Taylor, of Port Angeles, and the 2005-2006 president-elect is Ellen Conedera Dial, of Seattle.

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; 24 sections; and a Young Lawyers Division, with its many committees.