FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 10, 2007
Contact: Stephanie Perry
Communications Specialist/Website Editor
206-733-5932; stephaniep@wsba.org
Washington State Bar Association Names Judge Clifford Stilz Local Hero
Seattle, Washington, January 10, 2007 — The Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) announces that it will present Thurston County District Court Judge Clifford L. Stilz Jr. with their Local Hero Award. The Local Hero Award is presented to lawyers who have made noteworthy contributions to their communities. The WSBA Board of Governors will be meeting at the Tumwater Valley Lodge on January 11, and looks forward to hosting the Government Lawyers Bar Association and the Thurston County Bar Association for luncheon on Friday, January 12, at the Heritage Room, where the award will be presented.
Born in Olympia, Stilz received a B.A. from Willamette University in 1966 and an M.P.A. from UCLA in 1967. He earned his law degree from the University of Washington Law School in 1970, where he was a member and managing editor of the Washington Law Review, and was admitted to the Bar that same year.
Stilz served as a law clerk to Justice Robert C. Finley at the Washington State Supreme Court from 1970-71, then transferred to private practice with Fristoe Taylor & Schultz, Ltd., P.S., from 1971-84. In 1985, he became a member of the Thurston County District Court bench.
He is a current member of the Judicial Information Systems Committee and its Data Dissemination Subcommittee; the Washington State Bench, Bar, Press Committee and its "Fire Brigade"; a past president of the District and Municipal Court Judges' Association (DMCJA); former vice chair of the Board for Court Education; former member of the DMCJA Education Committee; and former chair of the DMCJA Legislative and Long Range Committees. He served on the Advisory Committee for the National Judicial Education Project: Domestic Violence in Civil Court Cases, 1992, and was selected to be a member of the Washington State team at the National Conference - Courts and Communities: Confronting Violence in the Family, 1993. Judge Stilz also maintains the Association's website (www.dmcja.org).
In addition, in the past two years, Judge Stilz has taken on the project of designing, establishing, and implementing a mental health court. As a result of his work, the county commissioners have approved the program, and Stilz continues to advocate for mentally ill offenders.
"Through his efforts, many mentally ill people are afforded the opportunity for treatment, as opposed to being locked up in jail," said James J. Dixon of Ditlevson Rodgers Dixon, P.S., in his nomination letter. "Mental Health Court helps these people stay on their medications and maintain treatment regimens, with the added goal of keeping them crime-free. A lot of people talk about doing something to benefit the mentally ill offender; Judge Stilz has done something about it."
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 30,600 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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