Karin Nyrop
By Sarah Mitchell
If Karin Nyrop has one request, it is that you come watch Husky women’s basketball. It’s not just that she’s got a passion for basketball--she won an undergraduate basketball scholarship herself--and it’s not that she’s a proud alumni of UW, her alma mater are Saint Martins and the University of Puget Sound Law School. Karin Nyrop (pronounced “Ny” like “eye”) is an Assistant Attorney General in the UW Division of the Washington State Attorney General’s Office, where among other things, she advises and represents the Department of Intercollegiate Athletics on issues including contracts, sponsorship agreements, and NCAA rules compliance.
It’s a match made in heaven: her love of sports and her expertise in law. Karin handles some other high-profile issues for UW as well, such as advising and representing the Capital Projects Office, representing the Purchasing Department, advising on scientific misconduct allegations and representing the Harborview Sexual Assault Center on records request issues.
Karin is the daughter of Danish immigrants and her appearance leaves little doubt of her Nordic heritage. She’s tall and slim, bright-eyed, with a warm and patient demeanor. Although her opposition may call her “stone faced” during a trial, it is only her game face.
Seeing the World
Karin is an avid traveler when time allows. Last summer she went on an extended trip to Scandinavia to visit long-lost family with her mother, husband and daughter. She and her husband plan to take their daughter to Central America in the near future--to visit a girl her daughter is sponsoring there. Kayaking in Honduras and hiking in Costa Rica are some of the things she most looks forward to doing on this trip.
She’s always had a travel bug. When Karin graduated high school she was lured into the Army with their promise of “seeing the world”--and see the world she did.
She was stationed in Ansbach, Germany and traveled through most of Europe and some of Morocco. While in Ansbach, Karin worked for six months as a Military Police Patrol Woman (MP), was then transferred to the Military Police Investigation Office where she became a plain-clothes investigator working on misdemeanors and minor felonies and as a member of a joint Military Police Investigation/Criminal Investigation Division drug suppression team. It was working with the Judge Advocate Generals (JAG) that Karin first had an inkling that she might want to become a lawyer.
When Karin finished her three years in the Army, she was drawn to the Pacific Northwest by a basketball scholarship to Saint Martins, where she was captain of the basketball team. She ruminates that if she had been born five years later she would have been able to reap more of the rewards that have flowed from the 1972 Title IX Act. As it was at that time, women’s basketball scholarships were still quite rare, although the programs were getting better.
Honors
After graduating Summa Cum Laude and Salutatorian from Saint Martins, Karin anxiously awaited an admission decision from the University of Puget Sound Law School. Her second choice was a position on the Olympia Police Department.
At UPS she was on law review and graduated Magna Cum Laude. Directly after law school she clerked for the Honorable Vernon R. Pearson at the Washington State Supreme Court. Justice Pearson taught her that, in deciding every case, “it’s a matter of looking at the facts, looking at the law and never forgetting that people are involved.”
Karin left her clerkship to join the firm of Reed McClure Moceri Thonn & Moriarty, working in insurance defense litigation. Before long she was back in public service with the Kitsap County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office in the Civil Division. At Kitsap County, Karin handled tort defense, employment litigation, and agency advising on issues like personnel, bidding laws and solid waste management.
While at Kitsap County, Karin also got her feet wet with contract law, which surprisingly was her least favorite class in law school. When she moved on to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, she advised and represented the Water Quality and Transit Divisions on a variety of purchasing and capital project-related matters. She was the lead attorney on numerous construction project claims and litigation for King County.
Construction Law
While her favorite legal subject is NCAA Rules interpretation, construction Law is probably Karin’s second favorite area of law. “I like to build things; construction law and contracting are interesting because of the projects that are ultimately built.” She was the Washington State Bar Association’s Construction Law Chair in the past.
Now, at UW, Karin advises and represents the Capital Projects Office on contracts and construction law issues, including bid protests, claims, retainage matters, and construction litigation. She credits the people who work in the Capital Projects Office with being incredibly bright and capable.
She is proud to say that there have been no large lawsuits arising out of the projects managed by the University’s Capital Projects Office for the eight years since she’s been at UW, although she has handled some bid protests, some claims, some dispute resolution hearings, and negotiations.
Besides the brilliant staff at the Capital Projects Office, she also attributes the low rate of litigation to the new contracting tools available to the University. As a state institution, the UW has the choice of utilizing several methods of developing a capital project. It can use the “Design, Bid, Build” model or use the Alternative Public Works model under RCW 39.10. “Design, Bid, Build” is the classic method and is as it sounds: a design is sought, once the design is finalized, there’s a bidding process to build that design and then the lowest bidder is selected to build it.
On the other hand, the Alternative Public Works Contracting method allows a public agency to choose the builder as they are choosing the design so that the designer and builder can work collaboratively in order to design and build a project that is both architecturally pleasing yet easily constructed by those that actually build it.
Karin finds that this process can be smoother and more collaborative, even if it doesn’t always cost less than the “Design, Bid Build” method. The fact that problems with the design get nipped in the bud before the subcontract packages are bid is another reason she gives for the low rate of litigation out of the Capital Projects Office. However, the primary reason is clearly the competency of that office.
More Public Service
When Karin isn’t concerned with construction contracts or Husky Basketball, she’s coaching a couple of sixth and seventh grade basketball teams at the Seattle Girls School, where her 12 year-old daughter Kristin attends. Karin describes the Seattle Girls School as “a place where they make an effort to let girls understand the leaders that they can be.” When talking about the Head of the Seattle Girls School, Marja Brandon, Karin says she’s “amazing.” “She is nearly the only educator that I have listened to who is capable of articulating her vision for educating children in a way that I can completely understand.”
Karin knows about education-speak: she’s a member of the Seattle School District Building for Excellence II Construction Program Oversight Committee.
Karin cites her experiences playing, coaching and watching basketball as her recipe for success. “Sports can teach lessons that carry through to so many other things: tenacity, teamwork, discipline and commitment to name a few.” Come watch a game--”you’ll be amazed at what these women can do.” To see what Karin does everyday, you’ll be amazed as well.
Sarah Mitchell graduated from Seattle University School of Law in 2004, where she concentrated on Intellectual Property Law. She has recently been hired by Washington Mutual as a Strategic Sourcing Analyst, which in plain English means that she reviews technology contracts. While in law school Sarah was an extern with the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, where she learned of the many accomplishments of Karin Nyrop.
