FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 17, 2007

Contact: Stephanie Perry
Communications Specialist/Website Editor
206-733-5932; stephaniep@wsba.org

Ken Davidson Receives Washington State Bar Association’s Award of Merit

Seattle, Washington, September 17, 2007 — The Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) announces that Kirkland attorney Ken Davidson will be honored with the 2007 Award of Merit. First given in 1957, the Award of Merit is the WSBA's highest honor. It is given for long-term service to the Bar and/or the public. WSBA President Ellen Conedera Dial will present the award at the WSBA Annual Awards Dinner, to be held on September 20, 2007, at the Grand Hyatt Seattle Hotel.

Davidson earned his bachelor’s degree and his law degree at Duke University. He works in private practice with the firm of Davidson, Czeisler & Kilpatric, currently focusing on tort and commercial litigation, real estate, and employment law.

Davidson has long been involved in service to the WSBA, the legal community, and his community. He has served on numerous WSBA committees and boards, including the Board of Governors, Legislative Committee, Budget Committee, Committee on Public Defense, and the Legal Aid Committee, and was the WSBA Treasurer for 2002. Davidson also served for five years on the Washington State Access to Justice Board, first as a board member and later as its chair.

Davidson has been active in the Eastside legal community as a trustee and president of the East King County Bar Association. In 1989, Davidson co-founded the Eastside Legal Assistance Program, and has served as its president and on its board of directors and continues to work as a volunteer attorney in its legal clinics. He has also served on the boards the ACLU of Washington and the King County Bar Foundation. Besides his volunteer work for bar organizations and legal aid and civil liberty programs, he has contributed his time to community work including service as a board member for the Cascade Community College Foundation and the Kirkland Chamber of Commerce, as a member of the advisory committee for St.Edward State Park and as a coach for the Kirkland National Little League.

“The specific extraordinary contribution that Ken has recently made to the bar and the public was chairing the Death Penalty Subcommittee of the Committee on Public Defense,” said Robert Welden, general counsel for the WSBA, in his nomination letter. “Ken led the subcommittee through serious, thoughtful, sometimes contentious proceedings, to produce an outstanding report with near-unanimous recommendations for improvement of the death penalty system in Washington.”

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 30,700 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 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. 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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