FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 22, 2005

Contact: Alfredo Tryferis
Communications Specialist
206-733-5932; alfredot@wsba.org

Bellingham Attorney Deborra E. Garrett Receives Washington State Bar Association's Local Hero Award

Seattle Washington, July 22, 2005 — The Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) announced today that Bellingham attorney Deborra E. Garrett received the WSBA's Local Hero Award. The award is presented to lawyers who have made noteworthy contributions to their communities. WSBA President Ronald R. Ward will present the award to Ms. Garrett on July 29 at the WSBA's Board of Governors meeting at the Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham.

Ms. Garrett was nominated for the award by the Whatcom County Bar Association (WCBA) for her representation of the Whatcom County Library System in successfully challenging a grand jury subpoena for records. On June 8, 2004, an FBI agent visited the Deming branch requesting the names of all patrons who had borrowed the book Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America, after a reader contacted the FBI to report a handwritten note in the margin of the book quoting Osama Bin Laden. The library, citing the need to protect their patrons' right to access the library's contents free of government scrutiny, refused to provide information without a subpoena or court order.

On June 18, a grand jury subpoena was served requesting the names and any other identifying information of patrons who had borrowed the Bin Laden biography since November 15, 2001. Ms. Garrett moved to quash the subpoena on the grounds that the request infringed on the First Amendment rights of readers; that libraries have the right to disseminate information freely and confidentially without the chilling effects of disclosure; and that Washington state's library-confidentiality laws protected the records. On July 14, the FBI withdrew the subpoena.

Ms. Garrett is a partner with the Bellingham firm Zender Thurston, which focuses on employment law and related issues. She graduated from the George Washington University National Law Center and has been in private practice in Bellingham since the early 1980s, representing individuals, businesses, and local government agencies. In the 1970s, she was a trial attorney with the National Labor Relations Board in Washington, D.C., and a staff attorney with Evergreen Legal Services in Bellingham.

"Deborra Garrett is our local hero," wrote WCBA President Elizabeth Li in nominating Ms. Garrett, "because she reminds us that our many years of legal training can and should be used to fight the good fight to protect the rights and privileges we hold dear in this country."

About the WSBA
The WSBA is a nonprofit association that operates as an instrumentality of the Washington State Supreme Court. Authorized 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 — 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, 24 sections, and a Young Lawyers Division.