FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 5, 2010

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

Washington State Bar Association Bolsters Civil Legal Aid

Individuals and families throughout Washington are benefiting from lawyers' generosity

(SEATTLE) - In May 2009, the Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) Board of Governors made a historic decision to direct $1.5 million to the Legal Foundation of Washington, to help with our state's civil legal aid funding crisis. The Board also voted to establish an alliance with Legal Aid for Washington Fund (LAW Fund), the philanthropic arm of the legal aid community, where the WSBA will be assisting LAW Fund's efforts raising charitable contributions from the legal community for civil legal aid.

The $1.5 million grant from the WSBA will be paid over the course of the year, and with the new year comes payment of the first installment. In addition to the WSBA's $1.5 million grant, hundreds of WSBA members are stepping up and making personal charitable donations.

LAW Fund President J. Richard Manning, in a letter to immediate Past President Mark Johnson, wrote: "We are now able to work together with combined resources to accomplish to a greater degree what we could not before: bringing to lower income families access to civil legal services. Nearly all of us became lawyers to help others in need regardless of their station in life. Thanks to the BOG [Board of Governors] we have a great opportunity to further pursue that dream - Equal Justice for All!"

Each year, the vast majority of our state's more than one million low-income families and individuals face at least one civil legal problem. Fewer than 20 percent receive legal help with their urgent legal needs. A lack of resources for free civil legal aid results in thousands of vulnerable people, the overwhelming majority of whom are women and children, having to face their legal problems alone.

LAW Fund was created in 1991 by three leaders in the Washington State Bar Association: the late Jack Dean, of Spokane, Mark Hutcheson, of Seattle, and Paul Stritmatter, of Hoquiam, to help bridge the "Justice Gap." LAW Fund administers the annual Campaign for Equal Justice fund drive, the backbone of the state's civil legal aid charitable fundraising efforts. The Campaign operates collaboratively with local legal aid organizations and bar associations to help provide the year-in and year-out program support for our state's 26 legal aid programs. Since its inception, LAW Fund has been able to contribute over $10 million to support civil legal aid programs in Washington. J. Richard Manning is the current president of LAW Fund, and the 2009-2010 Campaign for Equal Justice co-chairs are Paula Boggs and William Neukom.

The Legal Foundation of Washington is a not-for-profit organization created at the direction of the Washington Supreme Court in 1984 to administer the Interest on Lawyers' Trust Accounts (IOLTA) program in Washington state. IOLTA programs exist in all 50 states to help fund the nonprofit organizations that provide civil legal aid.

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 33,900 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 Board of Governors. There are three governors from the seventh congressional district; one from each of the other eight districts; and three at-large, one of whom represents the Young Lawyers Division. The president is Salvador A. Mungia, of Tacoma. The president-elect is Steven G. Toole, of Bellevue, and the immediate past-president is Mark A. Johnson, 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 its numerous standing committees, 27 sections, and a Young Lawyers Division with its many committees.

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