FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE       
November 9, 2005      

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

Seattle Attorney Mark A. Johnson Elected WSBA Treasurer

Seattle, Washington, November 9, 2005 — The Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) Board of Governors announced that Seattle attorney Mark A. Johnson, governor for the 7th-West Congressional District, was elected WSBA treasurer. The election took place during the Board of Governors meeting held October 28-29 in Vancouver, Washington.

Listed in every edition of The Best Lawyers in America since 1997, Mr. Johnson received his law degree from Drake University and joined the WSBA in 1978. A partner at Johnson Flora PLLC, he represents plaintiffs in medical and legal malpractice, and personal-injury cases, and has practiced in Alaska, Nevada, Minnesota, and California.

Mr. Johnson chairs the WSBA Budget and Audit Committee and the Board of Governors' Legislative Committee, and is a past chair of the WSBA Character and Fitness Committee, where he was instrumental in drafting the first comprehensive set of character and fitness rules for the Bar. He is also a member of the Washington State Trial Lawyers Association (WSTLA) and the Association of Trial Lawyers of America. In 2003 and 2004, he co-chaired the WSBA Conference on the Law of Lawyering and will chair the event again in December 2005.

Mr. Johnson is a frequent and sought-after speaker on legal ethics, malpractice, and risk management, and is the author of a host of articles on lawyer liability and medical negligence that have appeared in Washington State Bar News and WSTLA's Trial News.

About the WSBA
 
The Washington State Bar Association is an instrumentality of the state exercising a governmental function authorized by the Washington State Supreme Court 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 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 2005-2006 president is S. Brooke Taylor, of Port Angeles, and the 2005-2006 president-elect is Ellen Conedera Dial, of Seattle. 

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; 24 sections; and a Young Lawyers Division, with its many committees.