When you look at the current state of public defense in the state of Washington—indeed, nationwide—you will encounter words like “crisis,” “languish,” and “collapse.” Specifically, there’s a crisis in our public defense system in which many people are left to languish indefinitely without representation and without a fundamental corrective shift the system itself is under […]
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Whether or not you’re a lawyer or a doctor, most of us are familiar with a key law protecting patient privacy: HIPAA. Although it’s sometimes assumed that HIPAA provides consumer protections against the misuse of data by wellness, nutrition, and other health-related data, that’s not the case. HIPAA, explains business law attorney Nathaniel Gallegos, “only […]
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The Washington Legislature adjourned Sine Die after a 60-day session, with the WSBA Legislative Affairs team monitoring and acting on nearly 300 bills. Key bills include the Uniform Electronic Estate Planning Documents Act and amendments to the Business Corporations Act. Legislation passed includes ending child marriage and creating a task force for studying artificial intelligence issues.
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Today it has become fairly normal—in fact, expected in many instances—to remotely access things that used to be entirely in-person affairs. Speaker events offer webcasts in addition to physical spaces, work is a mix of in-office and virtual office, and courts have largely transitioned to virtual hearings. Although, the modern environment of a remote legal […]
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As the final days of the year wane, it’s become a bit of an annual tradition at NWSidebar to reflect on the previous 365(ish) days of legal news and, more to the point, examine which content drew the most eyeballs on this platform. In a typical year, the most-popular NWSidebar blog posts run the gamut from lawyering lifestyle commentary to caselaw dissection to various WSBA news and happenings. The pool of contributors to this blog is also often reflected in the content that has been viewed the most. In 2023, however, the most-popular blog posts on NWSidebar were mostly penned by one author: Mark Fucile.
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The 2023 Washington legislative session was a veritable who’s who list of divisive political issues. Affordable housing, assault weapons, drug possession, the death penalty—all were on the docket this year in Olympia. Indeed, over the 105-day session, followed by a brief special session, the WSBA Legislative Affairs Team tracked roughly 500 bills.
In addition to a brief glimpse at the hundreds of bills the Legislative Affairs Team tracked for WSBA sections, Walvekar also provides an overview of the WSBA’s Bar-request legislation, a look at the special session to address statewide drug possession law, and some of the expected issues to watch when the Legislature reconvenes in January 2024.
The June issue of Bar News also explores a bevy of Washington laws, policies, and organizations of relevance to the state’s legal profession.
A little over one year ago, the Harvard Business Review said that “virtually all of the world’s largest companies now issue a sustainability report and set goals; more than 2,000 companies have set a science-based carbon target; and about one-third of Europe’s largest public companies have pledged to reach net zero by 2050.” In other words, ESG is now the standard. But, of course, what the hell is ESG? Seattle-based attorney and sustainability consultant Nicole DeNamur explains in the newest issue of Washington State Bar News that ESG—which stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance—describes data and reporting that is steadily gaining in market demand and federal regulatory oversight.
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Roe v. Wade is out. Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta is in. The challenges of attracting new lawyers to Washington’s rural communities. Court decisions that clarify the Rules of Professional Conduct. A lot has happened in the past year. Surprisingly and thankfully, much of the news had nothing to do with the COVID pandemic. As has become tradition at NWSidebar, we looked back at the blogs of 2022 to see which stories resonated most with our readers. Read on to see the most-read articles of 2022.
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Ready or not, electronic wills have arrived in Washington with the Washington Uniform Electronic Wills Act effective Jan. 1. In the September issue of Bar News, you will learn all about the new rules and what they mean for estate planning attorneys. Also in the new issue, attorney Aaron D. Parker shares his story of entering the legal profession as someone with mental illness.
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As the end of the Supreme Court’s 2021-2022 term is fast approaching, possibly one of the most anticipated decisions of the term will be the ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. In this case, Jackson Women’s Health Organization sued the state of Mississippi to stop the implementation of a 2018 law that prohibits abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. The justices heard arguments over the state’s law last year and the Court is expected to issue its ruling by June or early July. A leaked draft opinion suggests that the court is likely to rule in favor of Mississippi and overturn years of precedent established in Roe v. Wade, which would give lawmakers the ability to ban or restrict abortions. The draft is not final; however, questions remain as to what a reversal of the Court’s abortion rights precedents would mean and how it may affect other critical rulings.
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On March 24, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed into law the Silenced No More Act, greatly restricting the scope of nondisclosure and nondisparagement provisions that employers may enter into with employees who either work or reside in Washington state. Effective June 9, the new law prohibits employers from requiring or requesting that an employment agreement contain a provision: “Not to disclose or discuss conduct, or the existence of a settlement involving conduct, that the employee reasonably believed under Washington state, federal or common law to be illegal discrimination, illegal harassment, illegal retaliation, a wage and hour violation, or sexual assault, or that is recognized as against a clear mandate of public policy….” However, employers will still be able to enter into agreements that (1) prohibit the disclosure of the amount paid in a settlement agreement; and (2) protect “trade secrets, proprietary information, or confidential information that does not involve illegal acts.” An employer that violates the law can be found liable in a civil action for “actual damages or statutory damages of $10,000, whichever is more, as well as reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs.”
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What does AI (artificial intelligence) think about the prospect of AI? Well, according to an AI text generator, which responded to bits of text from Washington State Bar News Editor Kirsten Abel, our technological future is, at best, ominous:
“In 2015, worldwide spending on AI was $2.2 billion, a staggering sum, but now it’s on the way to $50 billion, predicts IDC (International Data Corporation). Indeed, it’s as if we have already entered an era of omnipresent artificial intelligence. One cannot hope to escape it.”
From a legal standpoint, however, AI will have a hard time getting past patent office red tape on its way to omnipresence. According to Leron Vandsburger’s assessment in the new issue of Bar News, AI systems have reached beyond their rudimentary beginnings “to a creative domain that—if practiced by a human—would be worthy of interpretation, analysis, examination, or critique.” The problem, however, is that copyright laws in many places don’t recognize non-human inventors.
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It’s hard to believe that 2021 is already over. After a painfully slow 2020 during which the entire world was coming to grips with a (hopefully) once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, things almost began to feel normal this past year, and the weeks and months seemed to fly by. We started going out. We dared to think about things other than the virus. We gave our streaming services a much-needed break. The virus remained an ever-present part of life in 2021, but nowhere near what it was in the year before. You can see that reflected in the variety of topics covered on NWSidebar this year. Although the pandemic has remained a challenge for lawyers and non-lawyers alike, the blogs over the past year began to stretch beyond the limitations of COVID life and back into some semblance of normalcy. As has become our annual tradition, take a look back at 2021 to see the 10 most-read blogs of the year
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For the first time, the state of Washington has its own chapter within the Federal Bar Association (FBA). Washington’s new FBA chapter was initiated by Susan D. Pitchford and Diane Butler. Pitchford previously served as president of the FBA Oregon State Chapter, and Butler has experience with such nonprofit organizations as the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the Trade Development Alliance of Greater Seattle, and the FBA.
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Among the many problems with COVID-19, this interminable pandemic does not respect print editorial production schedules. Keep that in mind when you check the latest issue of Washington State Bar News, where you’ll likely find yourself wondering, “Since when are we going ‘back to the office?’”
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The Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) announced on June 25 that it was delaying the e-filing component of its Courts of Limited Jurisdiction Case Management System (CLJ-CMS) project—also known as Odyssey File & Serve (OFS). Citing concerns raised by the legal community, “Upon careful and lengthy consideration of the comments received, and several productive discussions held with leaders in the District and Municipal Court Judges Association and the District and Municipal Court Managers Association, the Project Steering Committee has decided to delay implementation of OFS while we sort through the various issues and consider other options.”
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