FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE   

June 8, 2009

Contact: Stephanie Perry
Communications Specialist/Website Editor
206-733-5932; stephaniep@wsba.org

Jonathan Yeh Named 2009 Pro Bono Award Recipient

(SEATTLE) — The WSBA Board of Governors takes great pleasure in announcing that Seattle attorney Jonathan Yeh is a 2009 recipient of the WSBA Pro Bono Award. The award was presented at the Access to Justice/Bar Leaders Conference at the Yakima Convention Center in Yakima, Washington. Yeh is being honored for his service to his community and his dedication to pro bono services in Washington.

Yeh received his B.A. at the University of Georgia and his law degree at Seattle University School of Law. Currently, he is a principal attorney at Blank Law and Technology P.S., where his practice includes general commercial transactions and litigation, computer forensics, electronic evidence, technology risk management, and intellectual property.

Yeh has been associated with the International District Legal Clinic for more than eight years. As a law student, he began volunteering as a clinic administrator. He later volunteered as an attorney, and has served for the past four years as the clinic coordinator, where he also continues to volunteer. More than 300 clients were served at the clinic in 2008, thanks in large part to Yeh’s work, as well as the hard work and dedication of the clinic’s many attorney and law student volunteers. In 2008, he organized the clinic’s expansion to a second site; the Chinese Information and Service Center branch continues to serve the downtown area, while the original clinic has relocated to a new facility operated by the Asian Counseling and Referral Service in the Rainier Valley neighborhood. Yeh now coordinates both clinic locations.

In addition to his work with the clinic, Yeh takes on several pro bono cases each year, and serves on the WSBA Pro Bono and Legal Aid Committee.

“[Yeh] not only sets the standard for volunteers at the legal clinic, but he has set the standard for any future clinic coordinator,” wrote past WSBA governor and International District Legal Clinic volunteer Marcine Anderson in her nomination letter. “[He] represent[s] outstanding efforts in providing pro bono services to the community while continuing to make an impact on our profession.”

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 33,200 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, 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 Mark A. Johnson, of Seattle. The president-elect is Salvador A. Mungia, of Tacoma; the 2009-2010 president-elect is Steven G. Toole, of Bellevue; and the immediate past-president is Stanley A. Bastian, of Wenatchee. 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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