PRESIDENT'S AWARD: Ernest I.J. Aguilar
A Champion for the Less Fortunate
By Daniel Gandara
To say that Ernest I.J. Aguilar has lived a full life is an understatement. At his recent 90th birthday party with his closest 200 friends and family, his life story was told in photos, videos and testimonials with many stories about a life filled with vision and passion. It was an opportunity for Ernie’s admirers to reflect on his life and the impact he has had on so many.
Ernie has been a thorn in the side of every governor of Washington as far back as anyone can remember. Ernie has pushed and prodded every governor to remember the less fortunate residents in our state.
As Ernie once explained, his life’s mission was “to do something to help my fellow man, the downtrodden, those who cannot speak for themselves, try to help and become involved in doing something for those who cannot do it for themselves, because of status, financial means, lack of education — whatever the reason or cause — so I wanted to dedicate the rest of my life to help my community.”
He has championed efforts to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, educate our children and help small businesses prosper. He hasn’t always been successful in his efforts, but no one can argue that he hasn’t been persistent and passionate.
Some of his many accomplishments and community contributions include:
- Decorated veteran of three wars;
- One of the original founders of the Washington State Hispanic Commission (formerly known as the Mexican-American Commission);
- Past representative of the Washington State Board Against Discrimination;
- Past board member of Catholic Charities (responsible for the creation of the Seattle Diocese Hispanic Ministry);
- First chairman of the Farm Workers Health Clinic in Toppenish;
- Founder and chairman emeritus of the Centro Mexicano, Mexican Consulate Office;
- Founder and chairman emeritus of the Washington State Hispanic Chamber of Commerce;
- Awarded the Ohtli Medal, Mexico’s highest civilian honor; and
Honored by the Washington State House of Representatives in March 1999, and then again in March 2009, “Recognizing his unique and courageous vision, tireless public service and legacy of accomplishments on the behalf of Hispanics and all citizens of the State of Washington.” (House Resolution 99-4657)
Several years ago, a group of us started the Ernest I.J. Aguilar Endowed Scholarship at the University of Washington Foster School of Business. The scholarship is a fitting tribute to Ernie, who always understood the value of a business education to small businesses.
Ernie saw education as a necessary ingredient to economic growth in the Latino community. At the time the scholarship was created, there were no Latino students enrolled in the UW MBA program. Since then, however, due in large part to the existence of the Aguilar Scholarship, there are more than 20 Latino students currently enrolled in the program. These future business leaders are a small part of Ernie’s legacy.
I am privileged to give the President’s Award to Ernest I.J. Aguilar for his lifelong commitment to improving the lives of the less fortunate.
OUTSTANDING JUDGE: LeRoy McCullough
“And what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?” Micah 6:8 KJV
By Jeffrey A. Beaver and Bonnie Glenn
On June 24, the King County Bar Association will honor Judge LeRoy McCullough with its prestigious 2009 Outstanding Judge Award. Judge McCullough has a deep commitment to and passion for juvenile justice.
“Judge McCullough is a dedicated servant for juvenile justice,” said former King County Superior Court colleague, U.S. District Court Judge Richard Jones, a former recipient of the Outstanding Judge Award. “By choice, he has worked in leadership positions at Juvenile Court. Judge McCullough established the court’s Thurgood Marshall Program and, by his example, he reminds us all of the need to rededicate ourselves to the impact the system has on many of our youth from diverse backgrounds.”
Judge McCullough was appointed by then-Gov. Booth Gardner to serve as a King County Superior Court Judge in 1989, serving as Juvenile Court judge in Seattle from 2000 to the present. He is chair of the Education Subcommittee of the Washington State Minority and Justice Commission and has worked on various projects to ensure fairness and equity within our judicial system.
He has served the court as criminal presiding judge at the Norm Maleng Regional Justice Center in Kent, chair of the King County Superior Court Jury Committee, Human Relations Committee, Personnel Committee, Institutions Committee and Education Committee, and has been a member of the King County Superior Court Volunteer Programs Committee.
He has mentored many young attorneys and young people over the years. Currently, Judge McCullough presides over the Juvenile Drug Court and has been a leader in helping to establish a protocol with a talented Oversight Committee throughout King County. He created the Youth and Law Forum in Seattle, now in its 18th year.
These forums are used to help educate young people and their families about the consequences that could result from the choices they make. They have been successful over time and have been replicated in other jurisdictions throughout the state. For example, Judge Dennis Yule has put the Youth and Law Forum model to use in the Tri-Cities area. This year alone, 300-plus young people participated in the programs offered in Seattle.
Judge McCullough has observed that when young people and the law are discussed in the same breath, bad news is often the result. In his program, the participants “need to focus on something positive rather than something negative,” he said. “Youth safety, improving communications between youth and law enforcement, and a look into law-based jobs were all goals when the forum was designed.”
Judge McCullough was born in South Carolina and earned both his bachelor’s degree and law degree from the University of Washington. He serves on the King County Library System Board of Trustees. He is a Life Member and former Executive Board member of the NAACP–Seattle Branch. He is also quite active in his church, First African American Episcopal Church of Seattle, having served on its governing board and brotherhood fellowship.
Prior to serving on the King County Superior Court, he served as chief hearing examiner for the City of Seattle; an assistant attorney general, DSHS Division, for dependency, child abuse and welfare litigation, King and Snohomish counties; and an administrative law judge, Office of Administrative Hearings, Employment Security Division, adjudicating employer tax and unemployment insurance matters in Olympia and Seattle. He was in private practice with Conley and Scales in Seattle from 1975–76, with a civil and general practice, including discrimination cases.
Judge McCullough is former president of the Loren Miller Bar Association and has been active on the boards of the King County Library and O’Dea High School, among many other community activities. He has received numerous awards throughout his career, including the 2003 Nevins Award from the Washington Judges Association and the Top Grad Judge, King County Journal, 2003 and 2004.
Judge McCullough was married for many years to Brenda McCullough until her untimely death in 2002. He has two adult sons, Matthew and Marcus McCullough.
Please join us in congratulating our Outstanding Judge for 2009, Hon. LeRoy McCullough.
Jeffrey A. Beaver is the chair of Graham & Dunn's Litigation Department. He focuses his practice on condemnation, financial institutions and commercial litigation.
PRO BONO AWARD: Norma Linda Ureña
By Carl Marquardt
The KCBA Pro Bono Award is presented annually to the attorney or firm who best exemplifies KCBA’s commitment to pro bono legal service. This year’s award will go to Norma Linda Ureña, recognizing her consistent, tireless efforts on behalf of unpaid workers, victims of domestic violence and other persons in need. The award is exceptionally well deserved.
Since graduating from UW Law School in 1994, Ureña has dedicated herself to securing justice for low-income clients. Ureña served as a legal aid attorney in her native Idaho from 1994 to 1997, before returning to Seattle to work with Northwest Justice Project and Columbia Legal Services from 1997 to 2002.
While legal aid work was satisfying in many respects, Ureña was frustrated by limitations that, among other things, restricted representation of individuals who did not have legal immigrant status in the U.S. Ureña entered private practice in 2002, in part to allow more flexibility in her practice.
These days, in addition to a thriving private practice serving family law and employment clients, Ureña takes a steady stream of pro bono referrals arising through the KCBA Community Legal Services (CLS) Program. Since 2002, Ureña has appeared in more than 20 cases referred through CLS’s Wage Claim Project, and six complex matters through the Family Law Mentor and Volunteer Attorneys for Persons with HIV/AIDS programs.
CLS staff praise Ureña for her unusual willingness to take on difficult cases, and exceptional diligence and skill in resolving them. Kim Todaro, managing attorney for the Family Law Mentor Program, notes that while some attorneys shy away from taking complex family law cases on a pro bono basis, “Norma will routinely take on the most difficult cases, including cases involving representation of domestic violence survivors in multiple court appearances. In fact, Norma has been known to call back to let us know she is ready for another referral.”
Ureña’s interest in pro bono service is an outgrowth of her own life experience and the forces that propelled her to become an attorney. Ureña was born to a family of migrant farm workers from Jalisco, Mexico, who settled in rural, southern Idaho when Norma, the youngest child, arrived. Growing up, Ureña watched her parents and four older brothers put in up to 16 hours a day working in fields, in processing plants and at other manual tasks.
Ureña frequently witnessed mistreatment and a basic lack of respect for Mexican workers. Equally frustrating, she recognized the sense of helplessness and acceptance that can take hold among people who suffer from discrimination — people whose tenuous status makes them fearful or reluctant to demand better treatment.
“On some level, you need to accept the way things are or else you could go crazy. But you can also do your best to work for positive change,” she says.
Ureña learned English as a second language in school and proceeded to excel as a student. In high school, she received National Merit and other scholarships to attend Seattle University.
Ureña recalls the unease felt by her parents — who had been unable to attend school past the sixth grade — considering that their daughter would go so far away to pursue a college education. Her father’s ultimate affirmation that he would support her in whatever she wanted to do motivated and inspired her.
Ureña worked as many as four part-time jobs at a time to help put herself through college. Summers spent back in Idaho reinforced the perceptions of injustice she had developed as a child and ultimately settled her choice of career. “I went to law school to help people like my father,” she says.
By the time she entered private practice in 2002, Ureña was painfully familiar with laws regarding unpaid wages for immigrant workers. The Wage Claim Project, a partnership between the KCBA Newcomers Resource Project and CASA Latina, seeks to assist local Spanish-speaking laborers with unpaid-wage claims. Ureña became a regular volunteer.
While the circumstances of individual cases vary, Ureña has seen that in many cases employers forego paying Latino workers simply because they believe they can get away with it. Employers recognize that, regardless of their visa status, immigrant workers are often reluctant to involve themselves in the U.S. legal system. Language and other barriers can further frustrate any meaningful recourse.
For Ureña, the injustice in such cases is striking. “The most appalling thing to do to someone who comes to the United States to work is to not pay them,” she says. Ureña and other project volunteers typically file lawsuits or liens on behalf of unpaid workers and work to obtain payment through settlement or other collection efforts.
Meantime, as she expanded her private practice, Ureña discovered a strong unmet demand for Spanish-speaking family law attorneys. To develop her skills in this area she connected with KCBA’s Family Law Mentor Program.
Like most CLS programs, the Family Law Mentor Program functions on a triage basis; it seeks to allocate pro bono resources to the most dire cases — generally, cases involving low-income clients where there are children at risk. The program places needy clients with newer attorneys, who can gain family law experience while working under the supervision of more experienced volunteer mentors.
As a volunteer, Ureña quickly graduated from “mentee” to become a critical resource in complex matters where other program resources failed. For example, one recent case involved a father who had an unusually violent history; he had been shot several times, imprisoned, and had assaulted his partner by, among other things, jumping across a counter to attack her at her place of work. Several attempts to place the mother’s case within the Family Law Mentor Program failed; the last attorney had withdrawn out of concern for her personal safety.
With nowhere else to turn, Todaro found Ureña was willing to take the case. While monitoring the father’s whereabouts through his probation officer, Ureña succeeded in showing the court that the father did not have any positive role to play in the young child’s life and that sole custody should be granted to the mother.
Based on her background as a legal aid attorney, Ureña understands how difficult it can be to find outside representation in such cases and she knows that calls for help are not placed lightly. “I know that when they call me, there’s usually no one else,” she says. “I can’t say no in that situation.”
Notwithstanding the efforts of attorneys such as Ureña, the need for pro bono attorneys is ever present and growing in these difficult economic times. CLS hopes Ureña’s work will motivate others to lend a hand.
Attorneys interested in the Wage Claim Project should contact Ann Wennerstrom at 206-267-7055. Attorneys interested in the Family Law Mentor Program should contact Kim Todaro at 206-267-7020.
OUTSTANDING LAWYER: Christopher T. Bayley
By Tom Kelly
No one in 1970 would have described Chris Bayley as a revolutionary. But the changes that he made when he was elected King County prosecutor that year brought about a revolution in the operations of that office that continues to the present day.
Bayley obtained a bachelor’s degree in history from Harvard College and an L.L.B. from Harvard Law School. He started practice as an associate with the Lane Powell firm. He then worked as a deputy attorney general for then-Attorney General Slade Gorton where he became the chief of the AG’s Consumer Protection and Antitrust Division.
When he was just 32 years old, Bayley entered the Republican primary for prosecutor against Charles O. Carroll, who had been in office for 22 years. There had been a number of newspaper articles complaining about Carroll’s failure to deal with what was widely perceived as a policy of tolerance of illegal activities and with reports of police corruption. Bayley’s victory in the primary was a stunning upset and he went on to win the office in the general election.
In July 1971, a grand jury was empanelled and issued indictments. Several high-level police officers were found guilty. Carroll and other local officials were found not guilty. But the positive effect on the criminal justice system was profound.
When he took office, Bayley brought in a number of outstanding attorneys in leadership positions, including Norm Maleng as head of the Civil Division; Dave Boerner as head of the Criminal Division; and Gene Anderson as head of the Fraud Division. Bayley established the standard of prosecutorial independence that has continued in the office to this day. He made the office a prestigious place for young lawyers to begin their legal careers and he helped restore public confidence in the integrity of the entire system.
Bayley served as the King County prosecutor until 1979 when he went to Perkins Coie to head up its Public Finance Department. A few years later he became the senior vice president for law and corporate affairs at Burlington Northern. In 1985, he became president and CEO of Glacier Park Company, Burlington’s real estate subsidiary. In the years that followed, he has used his legal skills in leadership roles in a number of businesses and public service organizations.
Now, almost 40 years after bringing change to the criminal justice system in King County, Bayley continues to contribute, locally, nationally and internationally. For the past 10 years, he has been the chair of the board of Stewardship Partners, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that helps private landowners restore and preserve the natural landscapes of Washington. The organization promotes and implements incentive-based programs that encourage landowners to participate in fish and wildlife conservation and restoration activities and to utilize sustainable land management programs.
Under Bayley’s leadership, Stewardship Partners has been involved in a number of projects, such as conservation and restoration efforts in the Nisqually watershed and the Snoqualmie Valley, as well as programs aimed at ensuring that developments do not adversely impact salmon habitat.
In addition, Bayley is on the boards of directors of Discovery Institute, Classic KING-FM, Scenic America and the E.B. Dunn Historic Garden Trust. He is also a trustee of the Sabre Foundation, a charitable organization that has donated close to 8 million new books, CD-ROMs and other educational materials to more than 80 countries.
Tom Kelly is a litigation partner at K&L Gates LLP. He was the KCBA president in 2003-04. Kelly was a deputy King County prosecutor during Chris Bayley’s tenure, so he is particularly delighted with Bayley’s selection as Outstanding Lawyer.
OUTSTANDING YOUNG LAWYER: Pallavi Wahi
By Robert B. Mitchell
To describe someone as “available” sounds rather mundane. But to say that the person is “ready for service, accessible, at one’s disposal, at hand, on tap” (Roget’s Desk Thesaurus) depicts a lively and engaged individual.
These words perfectly describe Pallavi Mehta Wahi and her commitment to the legal profession and the community: ready, accessible and available. She is generous with her time, talents and resources — willing to do whatever is necessary to bring others along. That she has amassed an impressive array of accomplishments while maintaining a productive and vibrant practice demonstrates a personal vitality and an ability to lead on important issues. Wahi is a model of all of the qualities we could want in our rising young lawyers.
Wahi is a founding member and immediate past president of the South Asian Bar Association of Washington. She also has the honor of being the first woman president of the organization. While president, she worked diligently to promote and lead the organization in advocating for its membership within the larger legal community. She also served as a crucial liaison with the legal community, other bar organizations and bar leadership.
During Wahi’s service as King County trustee on the Washington State Bar Association Young Lawyers Division Board from 2005–08, her seemingly inexhaustible commitment and determination to advance diversity and foster a spirit of genuine collaboration within the legal community was evident to others. She spent her term traveling across the state to hear and to echo the voice of young lawyers statewide. She was one of the primary forces behind the formation of the first-ever WSBA Young Lawyers Diversity Committee, which she later chaired. Wahi also encouraged the WYLD to set up its first “at-large” position for people of diverse backgrounds.
Wahi is passionately involved with the non-profit group Chaya, the only culturally sensitive, domestic violence prevention organization working to stop domestic violence in the South Asian community. She believes in the obligation of a community to support and sustain itself from within. Wahi is a past board member of Chaya and she continues to be a volunteer, donor and advocate for prevention of domestic violence in the South Asian community.
Wahi has demonstrated a strong commitment to mentoring law students and recognizes that true success for students of diverse backgrounds can only come with success within the profession. She has served as a formal and informal mentor to K&L Gates associates, staff attorneys and summer associates as well. She plays an active role in teaching general litigation and IP-related skills to more-junior lawyers and shares her insights and learning through our firm’s formal training program.
Before joining K&L Gates, Wahi was an associate with Stokes Lawrence, P.S. At Stokes, Wahi founded and chaired the firm’s Diversity Committee and helped the firm to define its role in the diversity community. Her leadership and sensitivity in understanding and fostering diversity within the firm was both appreciated and recognized. She also was responsible for instituting Stokes’ first scholarship for diverse law students.
As a partner at K&L Gates, Wahi focuses her practice on cyber and technology law, intellectual property litigation and commercial litigation. She represents large and small clients alike in a wide range of matters, including high-profile litigation as well as counseling on pending regulation and legislation.
She consults with and vigorously represents clients regarding all types of cyber law issues, with particular attention to the use and misuse of intellectual property online. She has worked on defending and prosecuting a wide variety of commercial litigation cases, including business-to-business disputes and trade secret litigation.
The breadth of Wahi’s contributions to the legal profession is truly impressive and clearly demonstrates that she is an outstanding young lawyer. She is dedicated to her work, to her community and to her ideals. She exemplifies the best in our community — working to provide high-quality legal services to clients and support for those in need.
Rob Mitchell is an appellate lawyer and the Pacific Northwest (Seattle) administrative partner of K&L Gates.
WILLIAM L. DWYER OUTSTANDING JURIST: Ronald M. Gould
By Joseph E. Bringman
U.S. Circuit Judge Ron Gould, this year’s recipient of the William L. Dwyer Outstanding Jurist Award, has served with distinction on the Ninth Circuit since 1999. In the words of Judge Richard Tallman, one of Judge Gould’s Ninth Circuit colleagues:
He has brought [his litigator’s skills] to the appellate bench as an effective advocate in persuading his colleagues to follow his view of the law. He is recognized by all as a jurist who is unfailingly courteous, fair, thoroughly prepared on both the facts and the law, and whose adherence to the rule of law broaches no exception by either side in litigation. While he can be direct in pressing lawyers and judges on the finer points of law or the facts in a particular case on appeal, he is highly regarded even by those who possess a different judicial philosophy from his as being a jurist of gentle manner, pragmatism, and reason. His written opinions are a model of clarity and persuasive reasoning which lead to his logical conclusions.
Exemplary of Judge Gould’s concern for equal treatment under the law is Witt v. Department of the Air Force, 527 F.3d 806 (9th Cir. 2008), in which he wrote for a unanimous court that the military may not dismiss homosexual soldiers under its “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy based on generalized notions that the presence of known homosexuals will hurt morale within a military unit. Instead, he wrote, the Government must prove that a particular soldier’s dismissal will further the military’s goals of troop readiness and unit cohesion.
Witt was thus the first appellate decision addressing dismissal of a homosexual soldier to reject a rational basis test in favor of a heightened standard that requires the Government, when it “attempts to intrude upon the personal and private lives of homosexuals,” to show that the intrusion is necessary to further an important governmental interest.
Judge Gould graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Commerce and Finance and the University of Michigan Law School. He then clerked for Judge Wade McCree of the Sixth Circuit and Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart. In 1975, he joined Perkins Coie, where he practiced until his elevation to the bench.
Judge Gould’s practice emphasized antitrust, trade secret and other complex commercial litigation. During the 1980s, he helped the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation and its successors to recover tens of millions of dollars from persons responsible for the failure of several Northwest financial institutions, thereby helping to replenish the federal deposit insurance fund.
Judge Gould is a former WSBA governor and president, and a past trustee of both the Federal Bar Association of the Western District of Washington and KCBA’s Young Lawyers’ Division. In addition, he was a member of Gov. Mike Lowry’s “Kitchen Cabinet” and Transition Task Force on Ethics in Government, and has served on the Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle and on the boards of the Economic Development Council of King County, Bellevue Community College, Metrocenter YMCA and the Ninth Circuit Historical Society.
In his “spare” time, Judge Gould taught courses on dispute resolution at the University of Washington School of Law and chaired Metrocenter YMCA’s “Today’s Constitution and You” project, which promoted the U.S. Constitution during its bicentennial.
Yet, if you asked Judge Gould to name the extracurricular activity that has meant the most to him, he likely would cite his work with the Boy Scouts. An Eagle Scout himself, Judge Gould has sat on the executive board of the Chief Seattle Council since 1984 and served in several vice president positions. In 1995, Judge Gould received the Silver Beaver Award, the highest award a council may give to volunteer leaders.
In the 1990s, Judge Gould developed multiple sclerosis. The disease first publicly manifested itself through a limp (which he often attributed to a “bum knee”); today, it confines him to a motorized wheelchair. Despite the progressive worsening of his physical condition, Judge Gould’s devotion to the practice of law, his clients and community service never faltered.
Nor has Judge Gould allowed his disability to limit him on the bench. Judge Tallman states:
While all of his colleagues have felt keenly the pain of his progressive disease, it has not slowed him down in the least. He has the heart of a lion and the stamina to match. ... [H]e continues to carry a full caseload and to remain as current as any of the healthier active judges.
Last year, the WSBA presented Judge Gould with its Professionalism Award, recognizing his “pursuit of a learned profession in the spirit of service to the public and in the sharing of values with other members of the profession.” KCBA is pleased to join WSBA in recognizing this outstanding jurist.
Joe Bringman is a litigator at Perkins Coie LLP, where he worked extensively with Judge Gould. His current practice emphasizes securities litigation defense, insurance coverage litigation and appeals. Bringman is a former KCBA secretary and trustee and was just elected KCBA’s second vice president.
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