By Joseph E. Bringman

Odds are that this is not the first item you’ve read in this month’s Bar Bulletin. If you’re like most of our readers, you started with “Bar Talk.” In that case, you’ve already met this year’s winner of the “Helen M. Geisness Outstanding Lawyer or Non-Lawyer Award for Exemplary Distinguished Service on Behalf of the King County Bar Association,” our very own Karen Sutherland.

Officers and trustees of the Association come and go, but Karen has been a constant. She has chaired the Bar Bulletin Committee for seven years, including the immediate past five years. In that capacity, her responsibilities include reviewing the current issue and planning topics and recruiting writers for future issues with the editor and the Bar Bulletin Committee, and managing the renewal of agreements with the publisher. In addition, Karen contributes articles on matters such as employment law and marketing.

Karen is best known, however, for writing the “Bar Talk” column, which she has been doing since September 1993. As the Awards Committee noted in recommending that Karen receive the Geisness Award, “Bar Talk” helps lawyers to know one another and thereby enhances collegiality and promotes professionalism. Through “Bar Talk” and her other work with the Bar Bulletin, Karen epitomizes what it means to provide service to the Bar.

Always an avid reader of “Bar Talk,” Karen applied to take over the column after reading that the prior “Bar Talk” columnist (Suzanne Barnett, now a Superior Court Judge) was moving on to other things. Karen enjoys writing “Bar Talk” as her second vocation in the world of law. After all, she likes to receive mail, she likes to know what’s going on in the legal community, she likes to write, and she can even justify the time involved to her firm as a marketing opportunity.

One of the biggest changes in preparing “Bar Talk” over the years has been that, with the increased use of email, much of the information Karen receives is more chatty than it was in the past. That suits Karen fine, as it matches the tone with which she likes to start her column--the same tone that she would use in letters to family members.

A Washington native and a rabid Mariners fan, Karen obtained both her undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Washington. Today, Karen is the Assistant Managing Member and the Chair of the Employment and Labor Law Department of Ogden Murphy Wallace, P.L.L.C., her “absolute favorite law firm.” Karen also teaches at continuing legal education seminars, annually co-chairs the Washington State Bar Association’s Ethics in Civil Litigation program (formerly known as the Civil Litigation Institute), makes presentations to civic and industry groups, and has served as a bar examiner and as chair of the Northwest Environmental Claims Association and the Northwest Reinsurance Association.

Karen’s employment law practice includes counseling, training, and litigation on behalf of cities, counties and private employers on all kinds of workplace issues, including sexual and racial harassment, violence in the workplace, employee privacy, noncompetition and nondisclosure agreements, and employee terminations. As a member of firm management, Karen was primarily responsible for designing Ogden Murphy’s office decor, and takes pride in achieving a look that is bright, airy, and able to hide coffee stains.

Away from the world of law, Karen is an accomplished glassblower. Her work is shown in local galleries (and everywhere you look in her office). Karen hopes that her “blown glass pieces [will] bring a little color and joy into the hearts and minds of all who see them.” She says that “[t]hey provide a sense of peacefulness while allowing the natural creativity and playfulness of the human spirit to flow.” Generally active in the Seattle arts community, Karen is a member of the Pratt Fine Arts Center, the Center on Contemporary Art, and the Glass Arts Society, and is a former volunteer for the Pilchuck Glass School, where she studied.

Despite her busy schedule, Karen emphasizes that it is not hard to find time to do volunteer work for the Bar. No wonder she’s a Geisness Award winner.