Volunteering – NWSidebar

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How Amazon Went Global with Pro Bono

Amazon recently released its first ever Pro Bono Report, which describes some of the pro bono work provided by more than 700 Amazon lawyers and legal professionals across dozens of countries since the program’s formal launch in 2014. In total, Amazon lawyers and legal professionals have provided over 40,000 hours of service through Amazon’s pro bono program in that time. Amazon Associate General Counsels Sean Croman and James Cuneo answered a few of our questions about how Amazon’s pro bono program was created, how it creates meaningful opportunities for Amazon employees around the world to engage in pro bono service, and how other corporate legal departments might replicate their efforts.

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Lawyers Continue to Help Feed Children During the Pandemic

In 1991, Lawyers Helping Hungry Children (LHHC) was founded by Seattle attorney Robert Mussehl and a group of dedicated lawyers who sought to end childhood hunger. For the past 22 years, LHHC has helped fund anti-hunger programs and advocated for children. LHHC currenty funds the City of Sumner Food Service Program, the Emergency Feeding Program, and Northwest Harvest, which service those in need of food throughout King County; LHHC also has a chapter in Tacoma. LHHC also funds Care, which provides nutritional food to children across the globe. Care currently works in over 100 countries, reaching close to 10 million children. LHHC remains a group of lawyers committed to ending childhood hunger.

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AG Ferguson: Let’s Address the Unmet Civil Legal Needs of Veterans and Service Members

As attorney general, I invite Washington’s legal community to consider how we all can support veterans and service members throughout the year. My office honors the service and sacrifices of those who have served in our armed forces by working to meet their civil legal needs through our Office of Military & Veterans Legal Assistance (OMVLA). Through the Military Engagement & Directed Advocacy by Lawyers (MEDAL) program, OMVLA facilitates direct representation for military service members and veterans. The MEDAL program receives requests for legal assistance and refers qualified requests to registered volunteer attorneys who can offer assistance with self-selected civil legal issues. OMVLA also coordinates training for volunteer attorneys to acquire the skills they need to address these civil legal needs.

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Pandemic Pro Bono: Washington Lawyers Recognized Nationally For Pro Bono Contributions

Michael Terasaki started his new role in what he calls “Zoom land.” For Terasaki and others who coordinate pro bono and low bono legal services in Washington, the new normal amid the undulating cycles of pandemic chaos has been a stew of new opportunities and new limitations, rising needs for legal aid and limited resources to meet it. It’s not necessarily the case that volunteerism has fallen dramatically—its dipped slightly, he said—but the pandemic clobbered the available legal aid with a sudden and dramatic increase in clients.

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Washington Forms New National Chapter of the FBA

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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Meet the 2021-2022 Law Student Representatives

Each year, the WSBA partners with Washington’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. Read on to meet the 2021-2022 law school representatives.

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Mutual Aid and the Law: The Rise and Necessity of Mutual Aid in Immigrant Communities

The concept of “mutual aid” is new to many, but the concept itself is arguably as old as human society. Amid the devastating consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and the civil uprisings against racial injustice that spread throughout the U.S. and world last summer, communal support systems have arisen to fill in where other systems have failed. Far more than a buzzword, mutual aid is part of a fundamental shift in the thinking behind structures like social services, nonprofit charities, and even the justice system.

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Take It from a WSBA Volunteer: A Q&A With Francis Adewale

Meet Francis Adewale. All this week, the WSBA is joining others around the country during National Volunteer Week to recognize and celebrate the many invaluable volunteers who devote their time and expertise to carry out the WSBA mission of serving the public, ensuring the integrity of the legal profession, and championing justice.

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Take It from a WSBA Volunteer: A Q&A With Andrea Jarmon

Meet Andrea Jarmon. All this week, the WSBA is joining others around the country during National Volunteer Week to recognize and celebrate the many invaluable volunteers who devote their time and expertise to carry out the WSBA mission of serving the public, ensuring the integrity of the legal profession, and championing justice.

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Take It from a WSBA Volunteer: A Q&A With Nicholas Larson

Meet Nicholas Larson. All this week, the WSBA is joining others around the country during National Volunteer Week to recognize and celebrate the many invaluable volunteers who devote their time and expertise to carry out the WSBA mission of serving the public, ensuring the integrity of the legal profession, and championing justice.

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Take It from a WSBA Volunteer: A Q&A With Stacey L. Romberg

Meet Stacey Romberg. All this week, the WSBA is joining others around the country during National Volunteer Week to recognize and celebrate the many invaluable volunteers who devote their time and expertise to carry out the WSBA mission of serving the public, ensuring the integrity of the legal profession, and championing justice.

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Take It from a WSBA Volunteer: A Q&A With Kristina Larry

Meet Kristina Larry. All this week, the WSBA is joining others around the country during National Volunteer Week to recognize and celebrate the many invaluable volunteers who devote their time and expertise to carry out the WSBA mission of serving the public, ensuring the integrity of the legal profession, and championing justice.

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Take It from a WSBA Volunteer: A Q&A with Michele Carney

Meet WSBA volunteer Michele Carney. All this week, the WSBA is joining others around the country during National Volunteer Week to recognize and celebrate the many invaluable volunteers who devote their time and expertise to carry out the WSBA mission of serving the public, ensuring the integrity of the legal profession, and championing justice.

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Take It from a WSBA Volunteer: A Q&A With Kari Petrasek

Meet WSBA volunteer Kari Petrasek. All this week, the WSBA is joining others around the country during National Volunteer Week to recognize and celebrate the many invaluable volunteers who devote their time and expertise to carry out the WSBA mission of serving the public, ensuring the integrity of the legal profession, and championing justice.

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WSBA’s Powerful Communities Project: Training and Tools

The Powerful Communities series features: Family Law CASA of King County, Clark County Volunteer Lawyers Program, Seattle Clemency Project, and Thurston County Volunteer Legal Services.

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Attorney General Bob Ferguson Honors Service Members, Calls for MEDAL Volunteers This Veterans Day

Each year on Veterans Day, we pause to honor those who have served in our armed forces. We should never forget their contributions to our safety, security, and health. Over the past year, service members have been called to the front lines of historic challenges, including management of the COVID-19 pandemic and fighting wildfires threatening communities across our state.