The Northwest Women’s Law Center - 2003 Friend of the Legal Profession
By Janet Helson
KCBA presents its 2003 Friend of the Legal Profession Award to the Northwest Women’s Law Center in recognition of its “distinguished and meritorious service to the legal profession and justice system.” For 25 years, the Northwest Women’s Law Center has been working to advance women’s legal rights in the Pacific Northwest. Through its work, the Law Center has not only advanced the legal rights of women, but has strengthened and improved the justice system itself.
By using a cadre of volunteers, the Law Center leverages its relatively small budget and staff into a broad-based advocacy team that operates on multiple fronts, deploying a variety of tools to improve the state of the law and women’s access to the law.
Through its Legislative and Impact Litigation Programs, the Law Center works to change the law. Through its Self Help Program, including a Legal Information and Referral Line that serves nearly 5,000 people each year, the Law Center works to ensure that individuals have access to information about their legal rights and how to enforce them.
The Litigation Program brings public impact cases in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington, participates as amicus curiae in cases affecting women throughout the nation, and provides technical legal aid to practitioners in the five Northwest states in matters affecting women’s legal rights.
Examples of Law Center cases include the representation of Colonel Grethe Cammermeyer in her lawsuit against the U.S. Navy which had discharged her because of her sexual orientation; the representation of deaf survivors of domestic violence who were not provided interpreters when they called the police to seek assistance; the representation of rural Washington and Oregon women seeking to become members of the Fraternal Order of the Eagles, and the representation of young women in lawsuits seeking freedom from sexual harassment and equal access to athletic opportunities in schools.
In 2002, the Law Center successfully represented Jane Doe, a young, pregnant woman married to an enlisted man in the Navy. Jane and her husband received the devastating news that the fetus Jane was carrying had anencephaly, an incurable, 100% fatal condition in which the fetus lacks a forebrain and most of the cranium. They were further devastated to learn that they would not be able to carry out their doctor’s medical recommendation that Jane obtain an abortion because the Hyde Amendment decreed that the federal government would not pay for abortions and they could not afford to pay for one themselves - meaning that Jane would have to carry the fetus for four more months only to have it be born dead or die within hours of birth.
The Law Center represented Jane Doe in a lawsuit filed in federal court and successfully compelled the Navy to pay for Jane’s abortion. U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Zilly subsequently held that “the applicable regulation specifically targets women with abnormal pregnancies that cannot yield a viable human life, but do pose grave medical and emotional health risks to the mother.”
On the legislative front, the Law Center works on a broad range of issues, but is particularly active on family law and domestic violence issues, developing affirmative legislation that will improve women’s lives and working to defeat legislation that would harm women and their families.
In 2002, the Law Center spearheaded passage of legislation that provides unemployment benefits to survivors of domestic violence who are forced to leave their employment in order to escape domestic violence.
In 2003, the Law Center continues to work on bills to ensure that landlords cannot discriminate and deny housing to domestic violence survivors because of their status as survivors and that people who have had parent-like roles in children’s lives are able to obtain visitation with the children when the family constellation changes.
The Law Center’s Self-Help Program uses volunteer attorneys, paralegals and law students both to create self-help packets and to staff the Legal Information and Referral Line. There are approximately 20 attorneys on the Self-Help Committee, which creates packets on such topics as “The King County Case Management Schedule,” “Settlement Conferences,” “Confidential Identity Changes in Washington State,” “Custodial Interference,” “Relocation,” and “New Rules Regarding Your Family Court Records.”
Calls to the Information and Referral Line help the Law Center and its partners in the justice community identify emerging issues facing low-income, vulnerable and under-served women. As trends are identified, the Law Center moves to respond, whether by preparing self-help materials, publishing a book, or initiating lawsuits or legislation.
KCBA is proud to recognize and honor the Northwest Women’s Law Center, in its 25th anniversary year, for its distinguished service and profoundly important contributions to the legal profession and the justice system.
Janet Helson is Regional Director of Columbia Legal Services.
