FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
May 31, 2005      

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

WSBA Board of Governors to Meet in Bellevue, June 2-3

Seattle Washington, May 31, 2005 — The Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) Board of Governors will hold its next meeting on June 2-3 at the DoubleTree Hotel in Bellevue. The WSBA governor from the Eighth District, Bellevue attorney Randy Gordon, will welcome the Board to Bellevue. On Thursday, the meeting will be held from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. Friday's public meeting will be held from 9:00 a.m. to noon, and from 1:30 to 4:30. The meetings are open to the press and the public.

Thursday's session will be devoted to the tort initiatives and medical malpractice issues that will be on the November ballot. The Board will discuss whether to take a position on Initiative 330, which proposes amendments "relating to health care liability reform." Seattle attorney Mark Johnson, WSBA governor from the 7th-West District, will give the Board a summary of I-330. Others addressing the Board will be John Connelly, president-elect of the Washington State Trial Lawyers Association; Thomas J. Curry, CEO of the Washington Medical Association; Barbara Flye, former executive director of Washington Citizen Action; Jeff Frank, president of the Washington Defense Trial Lawyers; and Mike Kreidler, Washington state insurance commissioner.
A highlight of Friday's meeting will be the election of the new WSBA president-elect. This individual will serve as president-elect beginning in September, and will assume the presidency of the WSBA in September 2006.

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 on Friday. 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, Christine Crowell, will present their annual report. The ATJ Board's tenth-annual statewide Access to Justice Conference will be held at the DoubleTree Hotel Friday through Sunday.

After lunch, WSBA Treasurer Joni Kerr, of Vancouver, will brief the Board on the preliminary 2005-2006 budget. Chair of the WSBA Court Rules and Procedures Committee, Seattle attorney David Swartling, will present the committee's recommendations to some of the Rules of Appellate Procedure. If approved by the Board, the recommendations will be forwarded to the Washington State Supreme Court for action. Also on Friday afternoon's agenda will be a report from Bainbridge Island attorney James Macpherson, chair of the President and Governor Selection Task Force, on the task force's recommendations about assuring opportunities for Board service in diverse districts. Seattle attorney Leona Colgrove and Redmond attorney Joaquin Hernandez, co-chairs of the WSBA Committee for Diversity, will present a follow-up report from the committee's and the Board's co-sponsored "Celebrating Diversity" program, held in March.

President of the Washington Young Lawyers Division (WYLD) Steve Marsalis, of Spokane, and members of the WYLD Board of Trustees will close the meeting with a presentation of their annual report. Public-service programs are an important part of the WYLD's work. Programs include legal clinics; the Pre-Law Student Leadership Conference, designed to encourage at-risk youth and minority students to pursue higher education, consider careers in law, and take active leadership roles in their communities; and the Aspiring Youth Program, which provides after-school activities for at-risk middle-school students.

About the WSBA
The WSBA is a private, nonprofit organization authorized by the Washington Supreme Court to license the state's 28,800 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.