FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   

May 29, 2007      

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

WSBA Board of Governors to Meet in Wenatchee June 1

Seattle, Washington, May 29, 2007 — The Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) Board of Governors will hold its next meeting on Friday, June 1 at the Coast Wenatchee Center Hotel. Pasco attorney Edward Shea Jr., who represents members in the Fourth District, and WSBA President-elect Stanley Bastian, of Wenatchee, will welcome the Board to Wenatchee. The public meeting will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with a break from noon to 1:30 p.m.

Each year at its June meeting, the Board of Governors elects a new president-elect, who will take office as president-elect in September, and begin service as WSBA president in September of the following year. An at-large governor will also be elected at the meeting. The three at-large seats on the Board of Governors (one specifically for a member of the Washington Young Lawyers Division) were created in 2001, to ensure representation from underrepresented members of the association, and with the goal of making the Board of Governors a more diverse body.

Members of the Access to Justice (ATJ) Board will join the Board of Governors for lunch. Established by the Washington State Supreme Court in 1994, the ATJ Board’s mission is to promote and facilitate equal access to justice in Washington for low- and moderate-income people through high-quality legal services. The chair of the ATJ Board, the Honorable Gregory Tripp, of Spokane, will present their annual report. The ATJ Board’s twelfth-annual statewide Access to Justice Conference will be held in Wenatchee Friday through Sunday, in conjunction with the WSBA Bar Leaders Conference.

In the afternoon, there will be a continuation of a report begun in March and April by the Committee on Public Defense. The Committee was established to implement the recommendations of the WSBA Blue Ribbon Panel on Criminal Defense (the Blue Ribbon Panel was appointed by the WSBA Board of Governors in spring 2003 as a first step in addressing concerns about the quality of indigent defense services in Washington). Since its formation in fall 2005, the Committee (whose work has been divided into the following subcommittees: Death Penalty, Education, Juvenile Defense/Representation, Mental Illness and Sex Offender Civil Commitment, Non-legislative Fixes for Enforcement of Standards, Standards, and System Efficiencies and Legislative Changes) has been working diligently on developing recommendations for improving public defense in Washington state. Specifically on the agenda are reports from the Juvenile Defense/Representation and System Efficiencies subcommittees. Committee Co-chairs William Hyslop, of Spokane, and Jon Ostlund, of Anacortes, will make the presentation. Additional information about the Committee can be found at www.wsba.org/lawyers/groups/committeeonpublicdefense.htm.

Chair of the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education Board Mark Baum, of Brush Prairie, and WSBA Director of Regulatory Services Jean McElroy will present some suggested amendments to Admission to Practice Rule (APR) 11 and Appendix APR 11, Regulations of the Washington State Board of Continuing Legal Education. If approved, they will be forwarded to the Supreme Court with a request for adoption.

The Board will select three members to serve on the American Bar Association’s House of Delegates, and two members (one voting and one alternate) to serve on the Commission on Judicial Conduct. Additionally, WSBA Treasurer Eron Berg, of Sedro Wooley, will address fiscal matters.

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 30,600 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 Ellen Conedera Dial, of Seattle. The 2006-2007 president-elect is Stanley A. Bastian, of Wenatchee, and the immediate past-president is S. Brooke Taylor, of Port Angeles. 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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