FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE      
May 20, 2005

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

Wenatchee Attorney Jay A. Johnson Receives Washington State Bar Association's Local Hero Award

Seattle Washington, May 20, 2005 — The Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) today announced that Wenatchee attorney Jay A. Johnson received the WSBA's Local Hero Award. The Local Hero Award is presented to lawyers who have made noteworthy contributions to their communities. WSBA President Ronald R. Ward presented the award to Mr. Johnson May 20 at the Chelan-Douglas Bar Association's Spring Bar Celebration, held at the Wenatchee Golf & Country Club.

Mr. Johnson, who received his J.D. in 1977 from the University of Idaho School of Law, is currently a partner at Davis, Arneil, LLP and chair of the North Central Washington Equal Justice Advisory Committee (EJAC). He has a general civil practice, which includes general litigation, personal-injury cases, business and general estate litigation, and insurance-defense work. Mr. Johnson's practice also includes matters involving hospital law, water rights, creditors' rights, and real property transactions.

It is for his extraordinary work with the EJAC that Mr. Johnson was given the Local Hero Award. Formed in the mid-1990s to solve a funding crisis involving Evergreen Legal Services (now Columbia Legal Services and Northwest Justice Project), the EJAC brings diverse interests — business, agricultural industry, legal, and social services — together to form a nonpartisan and community-based group committed to justice and fairness for low-income residents.

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 Ron 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.