Cover of Bar News

Examining the Bar Exam in the New Issue of Bar News

Few academic milestones have achieved the same level of deserved notoriety as the bar exam. If graduating law school is a difficult achievement, passing the bar exam is a veritable stress caldron—one that distinguishes a licensed lawyer from a well-educated (and debt-riddled) law school grad.
“When it comes to assessing lawyer competence, we saw again and again and again in our research conclusive evidence that the existing bar exam is far from a foolproof or even reliable measure of competence; and, to the detriment of both candidates and the profession, it replicates and perpetuates bias,” Seattle University School of Law Dean Anthony E. Varona says in the latest issue of Washington State Bar News.

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Cover of June 2023 Bar News

The 2023 Legislative Session, Involuntary Treatment Act, and More in the New Bar News

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.

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Cover of Bar News April-May 2023

Help Wanted: Bar News Celebrates the Volunteers Who Power the Bar

Every year, we at the state Bar put our heads together to think up new ways to spread the word about volunteering. Particularly in recent years, we have experienced both sides of what WSBA Executive Director Terra Nevitt calls the “volunteerism tug-of-war.”
“Volunteers are the backbone of our work, and they, by and large, express satisfaction from their ability to shape and guide the profession through their work with the WSBA,” Nevitt writes in the new issue of Washington State Bar News, noting that a AmeriCorps/U.S. Census survey reveals how formal volunteerism with organizations dropped 7 percentage points from 2019 to 2021. “Simultaneously, engaging new volunteers and filling our many volunteer roles has become a heavier lift in recent years.”

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March 2023 issue of Bar News on a desktop.

Municipal Mayhem and More inside the March Issue of Bar News

It’s March, and for many it’s the month that only means one thing: a competition to rank the best courthouses in the state of Washington. Also, there’s some sort of sporting event.
Unlike other March-themed competitions, the WSBA’s Municipal Mayhem doesn’t take place on the court, but is a battle literally about the court(s). This battle of bureaucracy, this clash of courthouses, indeed this joust for justice will be left to WSBA members to determine, once and for all (and probably for the first time), which county hosts the courtiest courthouse. Of course, those aren’t the actual criteria upon which we will name the winner. You can find out all about the competition, how to fill out a bracket, and ways you can help your favorite courthouse shine by reading the cover story of the latest issue of Washington State Bar News.

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Cover of February 2023 Bar News depicting a glass piggy bank

ESGs and ABCs in the February Bar News

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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BarNews-DEC-JAN2023

The Clash at Midfield and More in Latest Issue of Bar News

In the case of Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, the U.S. Supreme Court was presented with a First Amendment controversy after a high school football coach began praying on the sidelines. When asked to decide whether such actions were protected speech or an unsanctioned blending of religious activities and public institutions, a 6-3 majority found that the coach’s First Amendment rights had been suppressed and reversed the lower court’s decision.

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Cover of BarNews November 2022

WSBA Goes Rural in the New Bar News

In the latest issue of Washington State Bar News, we try to shed more light on the state of the legal profession in rural Washington. The November issue features a variety of profiles on rural practitioners, focusing on three law practices in Dayton, South Bend, and Colville. And you can learn more about the history of the STAR Committee and hear from past Committee Chair Hunter Abell, along with a primer from attorney Allison R. Foreman on 10 statutes to know and understand when going into rural practice.

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Digital brain graphic on cover of BarNews April-May 2022

AI Inventors and More in New Issue of Bar News

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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BarNews March 2022

Volunteering and Professional Growth in the New Issue of Bar News

The fact is that the WSBA could not exist without its thousands of volunteers; at least, not exist in the same way. Without volunteers, an organization like the WSBA could be functional, but shallow; good enough, but never great for its members and the public. As described in the latest edition of Washington State Bar News, WSBA volunteers and their perspectives are needed “to inform the work of the WSBA and affect the direction of the profession.” WSBA Volunteer Engagement Advisor Paris Eriksen explains in the article “24 Ways to Give Back” that “volunteers speak up, criticize, critique, rethink, retool, and ask questions.” Also in this issue, you’ll find the continuation of our “Inside Scoop” column, which crowdsources valuable information for lawyers, whether they’re new to practice, venturing into new areas of law, or simply curious to learn from others’ experiences. In this month’s column, various contributors share their professional tips and tricks when it comes to “Motivation, Mentorship, and Managing Your Time.”

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Feb 2022 Cover of Bar News with Justice Whitener

Black History Month, Bar Structure, and More in the February Bar News

Justice G. Helen Whitener is at the intersection of several identities: a gay woman, someone living with a disability, a first-generation immigrant, and the first Black woman to serve on the Washington Supreme Court. In a wide-ranging interview with Justice Whitener, which is the featured story in the latest issue of the new Washington State Bar News, Hon. Lisa H. Mansfield asked the mentor, educator, and trailblazing judge, “In our society, a combination of all five intersecting identities does not necessarily add up to a life of success and abundance. In your case, it has. What has been your journey to achieving such abundance?”

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BarNews-DEC-JAN-2022

Analyzing the Year of the New Normal in Washington State Bar News

2021 has been a year of adaptation. Though we went into the year with cautious optimism of a return to normal, it seems that we are now coming to grips with a world in which we are collectively creating our new normal. As Mark Fucile explains in the latest Ethics & the Law column in Washington State Bar News, “there are a number of risk-management considerations for the work of a traditional law firm both inside and outside of a physical office.”

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BarNews Oct 2021 cover

Praise for Pro Bono in the New Bar News

In 2020, nearly 2,500 WSBA members contributed about 178,000 hours of pro bono legal services. That’s more than 70 hours per person, on average. That’s almost twice the national average, according to the ABA. And that’s more than 20 hours beyond the pro bono hours needed to make the Pro Bono Publico Honor Roll.

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Cover of April/May 2021 Bar News depicting a cow

Home on the Range and a Home of Our Own in Latest Bar News

For many, dairy farms will bring to mind pleasant imagery of placid cows nibbling grass and farmworkers ambling in the pre-dawn hours with stool and milking bucket in hand. In reality, the job of a dairy farmworker involves handling sometimes dangerous fully grown cows, machinery that can lead to injury or death, and long hours in a risky environment. These are some of the reasons why dairy farmworkers fought and won the right to overtime pay after the landmark Washington Supreme Court decision Martinez-Cuevas v. DeRuyter Bros. In the newest issue of Washington State Bar News, Marc Lampson breaks down the court’s decision and provides a detailed history of dairy farming to explain how this battle for overtime pay and worker safety on dairy farms came about.

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Cover of Bar News Nov 2020

Honoring Veterans in Washington State Bar News

Each November we dedicate a day to pause and reflect on our veterans. In the latest issue of Washington State Bar News, we’ve done just that. In recognition of Veterans Day, we’re sharing stories that focus on issues affecting service members, their families, and the legal professionals who make serving veterans their duty. Members of the WSBA Legal Assistance to Military Personnel Section help explain its origins and what its section members do

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Cover of Bar News Sept 2020

The Who’s Who of Bar News

You might not know much about the members of the Editorial Advisory Committee (EAC), what they do to help produce this award-winning magazine, or even the thought process that guides all editorial content—until now. In the September issue of Bar News we peek behind the curtain to learn more about the EAC, the members who comprise it, and what each member’s process is for taking content from ideation to publication.

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