FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE     

April 22, 2008          

Contact: Judith Berrett
Director of Member and Community Relations
206-727-8212; judithb@wsba.org

WSBA Board of Governors to Meet in Spokane April 25-26

(SEATTLE) — The Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) Board of Governors will hold its next meeting on April 25-26 at Spokane’s historic Davenport Hotel. Peter Karademos, of Spokane, who represents members in the Fifth District, will welcome the Board to Spokane. The public meeting will be held on Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., with a break from noon to 1:15 p.m., and on Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to noon.

After the Board meeting recesses on Friday, the Board will hold a forum titled “Marriage, Domestic Partnerships, and Meretricious Relationships: Washington’s Developing Landscape.” This is the second of two such forums (the first was held in Tacoma last month). The forum will be held from 3:30 to 5:00 p.m. in the Barbieri Courtroom at Gonzaga University School of Law. The forum’s moderator is Milton G. Rowland, of Spokane. Other distinguished panelists are Gonzaga University School of Law Professor David K. DeWolf; Gonzaga University School of Law Professor Helen T. Donigan; Wendy S. Goffe, of Seattle; Janet M. Helson, of Seattle; and Richard L. Sayre, of Spokane. Members of the press and the public are invited to attend the forum, as well as a reception, from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m., also held at Gonzaga.

At the reception, the Board of Governors will welcome members of the Spokane County Bar Association and the WSBA Committee for Diversity. President of the Spokane County Bar is S. Edward Carroll, and executive director is Penny Youde. WSBA President Stanley Bastian, of Wenatchee, will present the Local Hero Award to two Spokane attorneys, Lawrence Haskell and Patrick Johnson. As the Board of Governors travels around the state, these awards are presented to local attorneys who have made noteworthy contributions to their communities. The WSBA will honor the Spokane County Bar Association on its centennial and will present Mr. Carroll and Ms. Youde with a plaque.

Starting off Friday’s agenda will be the swearing-in of new governor Carla C. Lee, of Seattle. Ms. Lee, the first African-American woman to be a member of the Board of Governors, has recently been elected at-large governor representing the Washington Young Lawyers Division. Following a report from WSBA Executive Director Paula Littlewood will be a report from the WSBA Committee for Diversity presented by Co-chair Lael Echo-Hawk, of Tulalip. Rick Rasmussen, of Seattle, is the other co-chair of the Committee.

Rachelle Anderson, of Spokane, co-chair of the Greater Access and Assistance Project (GAAP) Committee, will update the Board on a proposal for a statewide GAAP program. GAAP is a joint project of the Access to Justice Board and the Washington Young Lawyers Division. The focus of the GAAP program is to provide legal services at a reduced rate to moderate-income clients – those individuals who do not qualify for legal aid.

After lunch, chair of the Board of Governors Strategic Planning Committee, Salvador Mungia, of Tacoma, will update the Board on the Committee’s recommendations for modifying several WSBA committees, and will ask the Board to take action.

Saturday’s agenda includes a presentation by Judicial Recommendation Committee Chair Susan Hinkle, of Wenatchee, about suggested modifications to the Committee’s Guidelines; a legislative wrap-up from Director of Justice and Diversity Initiatives Gail Stone; and a presentation on recommended updates to rules and regulations for limited practice officers by Director of Regulatory Services Jean McElroy.

Also on the agenda are several items relating to sections – law-student membership and subscriber membership. Chair of the Rules of Professional Conduct Committee Thomas Waite, of Seattle, and Committee member and former member of the Board of Governors Michael Pontarolo, of Spokane, will discuss a draft formal opinion regarding threatening to report an opposing party’s criminal conduct or immigration status in the course of a civil action, solely for the purpose of gaining an advantage when the criminal matter or immigration status of the person is not related to the civil claim.

The meeting will conclude with the governors’ and liaisons’ forums, during which governors and others in attendance may bring non-agenda items to the attention of the Board.

About the Washington State Bar Association
The WSBA is part of the judicial branch, exercising a governmental function authorized by the Washington State Supreme Court to license the state’s 32,600 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, the WSBA 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 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 Stanley A. Bastian, of Wenatchee. The president-elect is Mark A. Johnson, of Seattle; and the immediate past-president 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; 26 sections; and a Young Lawyers Division, with its many committees.

# # #