In 2024, the WSBA’s STAR Council introduced grants for law students interning in rural Washington to address attorney shortages. Interviewed recipients Olivia Perez and Shaw Lowry highlighted how their experiences in public defense offices shaped their commitment to rural legal practice while acknowledging the challenges, such as transportation issues and maintaining professional relationships.
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The 2025 legislative session began Jan. 13 and will focus on addressing a $15 billion budget deficit. Key bills being monitored include those related to loan repayment for public defenders, reinstating the Limited License Legal Technician program, and improving public defense funding and efficiency within the court system.
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Your former client wants a copy of their file, but they haven’t paid you your fee. Do you have to give it to them? You’ve already given your client a copy of their file, but now they want it again. Do you have to give it to them one more time? Can you charge for […]
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The Washington Supreme Court has approved a new bar exam format and concept recommendations for additional pathways to attorney licensure, following 50 years of debate. The exam has historically disadvantaged marginalized groups. The latest issue of Washington State Bar News outlines the changes and features important legal topics, including risk management considerations for lawyers.
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On Oct. 30, McCoy Russell LLP announced that one of its tools had not just scored higher than other similar technologies on the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Bar Exam, it actually outperformed the average human.
Given the easily stoked concerns of artificial intelligence (AI) eliminating jobs, wiping out industries, and portending the technological destruction of all humanity, it’s as important in this case to talk about what the firm’s Ironcrow AI LLM Sandbox does not do as much as what it can do.
“We’re always looking for tools, what can we use to make our work better,” said firm partner and cofounder John Russell. “… We started playing around and figured out the tools are good at wide-ranging tasks, but not very good at specialized patent work.”
KV, a lanky 15-year-old boy, appeared in the doorframe of YouthCare shelter’s meeting room. He saw a jar of candies and methodically picked through to find the “good” ones. KV then sat down, surrounded by a group of YouthCare shelter staff and a youth law attorney. KV is not yet eligible for Transitional Living Program (TLP), which is available to youth when they reach age 16, and he doesn’t want to be “shelter hopping.”
“A host home sounds like a decent option for me and anyone else like me,” he said.
Youth who lack stable housing and cannot return home to their families have few options. Minors seeking to temporarily or permanently secure safe and stable housing can file for a Child in Need of Services (CHINS), a minor guardianship, or private dependency petition. Yet those ways mean they must experience the adversarial legal process of court, talk to a judge, disclose private aspects of their life (including traumas they will have to relive), and miss school. They often still have an emotional relationship with their parents and caregivers, which gets poked and prodded during court hearings.
Providing estate planning and end-of-life services to an ailing parent generation, within a culture that does not have tools in place to easily do so, is going to require new strategies and forward thinking about cultural relevance and cultural competency.
The issue is vast and complex, so I believe a good place to begin is with the hesitancy of many people to move forward with formal estate planning. This is especially true among those who are first-generation immigrants from a collectivistic culture, thereby leading to higher risk that their wishes will not be properly expressed during the end-of-life process.
Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc. V. Goldsmith concerns whether the Andy Warhol Foundation (AWF) infringed the copyright held by Lynn Goldsmith in her photograph of the artist Prince, when it licensed Warhol’s version (“Orange Prince”) of Goldsmith’s photograph to the media company Condé Nast for a magazine cover. At issue was whether the fair use defense applies to appropriation. Rather than broadly refashion the law, the Court issued a narrowing interpretation of the first fair use factor, in the form of a new judicial test.
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In the evening of sine die of the 2023 session, April 23, the “Blake Bill”—the E2SSB 5536 conference committee proposal for replacing the expiring criminal provisions of ESB 5476 (2021)—was brought to the floor of the House and failed, an unexpected result. Much media attention has been paid to the apparent political snafu, but less attention has been paid to the history, evidence, policy options, and principles that underlay the votes taken that evening.
Gov. Jay Inslee has announced his intent to convene a special session to address this legislation, beginning May 16. Washington’s legal community has an immediate opportunity to express individual opinions to Washington’s elected decision makers about whether, and to what extent, use of criminal sanctions against people solely for drug use is consistent with the values and vision of Washington’s and the United States’ promises of justice for all.
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Previously in the first part of this Star Wars-themed blog series, we examined the surprisingly nuanced legal realm of war crimes. To do so, of course, we examined through a lens forged a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away—and by taking a look at the galaxy’s most sinister protagonist-turned-antagonist-turned-protagonist again, Darth Vader. In this blog sequel, we’ll continue to examine the alleged war crimes of Mr. Vader as carried out in the finale of the Star Wars prequel trilogy, Episode III, and then the beginning events of the original trilogy as depicted in “Rogue One” as well as that trilogy itself.
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How do you know if going independent and starting a law firm business is the right choice for you? In this article, I’ll give you some of the tools you need to determine whether it’s time to ditch a traditional office role and strike out on your own.
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Consider that a student who expects to graduate law school this year will have spent most of their education amid a global pandemic. Their legal academia would have taken place during historic global protests, a historic attack on the U.S. Capitol building, and the reversal of massively controversial legal precedent. In all, law students today are looking at a world full of inflation and, arguably, some of the greatest challenges for our legal system in modern history. Each year, the Washington State Bar Association partners with our state’s three law schools and selects a law student representative from each. These student representatives both serve as liaisons who communicate issues facing students to the WSBA, and who share WSBA resources with their fellow students.
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Each year on Memorial Day, we pause to honor those who have served in our armed forces. We hold deep gratitude and admiration for the men and women who have risked everything for our safety, security, and health. For those who are no longer with us, we keep their memory alive by solemnly remembering their sacrifice. This year, service members have been called to the front lines to continue managing the COVID-19 pandemic and fighting the natural disasters threatening communities across our state.
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More than 10,000 WSBA members are also members of the nearly 30 sections spread across the many diverse practice areas of the law. Through sections, these members band together to share knowledge, perfect their skills, and push the boundaries of the legal profession. Just as no single legal professional is limited to one area of law, a number of WSBA members are actually members of multiple sections. Nicholas Pleasants, for example, is one such lawyer. A solo practitioner and owner of Pleasants Law Firm, he participates in three WSBA sections. Read on to find out why he does it and what he gets out of it.
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In 2020, the Access to Justice (ATJ) Board established a COVID-19 Response Work Group to collaborate with other organizations in identifying and addressing community needs and systemic issues that arose or were exacerbated by the pandemic. The result is now available and being distributed throughout the state in the form of a COVID-19 Legal Needs Checklist.
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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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