By Lucy Isaki

Barbara Clark has spent her entire legal career in the service of justice. By doing so, she made the legal profession better, stronger and true to its value of justice for all. The King County Bar Assoc-iation selected Barbara Clark for the

2005 Friend of the Legal Profession Award because she dedicated her long career to the pursuit of justice for all.

For over 20 years, Barbara Clark has worked tirelessly as Executive Director of the Legal Foundation of Washington. She was its first, and only, Executive Director. Under the directorship of Barbara Clark, the Legal Foundation has distributed tens of millions of dollars to civil legal services and education programs. With Barbara’s guidance, legal services programs for low-income persons became stronger. They formed partnerships to improve the quality and distribution of legal services. And the quality of the stewardship of the IOLTA resources made available by the Legal Foundation constantly improved during Barbara’s tenure.

Barbara Clark weathered financial good and bad times at the Legal Foundation. When interest rates rose and Foundation income followed suit, she was just as conscious of the need to fund quality legal services programs as she was in the years of declining interest rates and revenue. She worked with all programs to assure that legal services continued to reach the people most in need of justice. The King County Bar Association and other King County operators of legal services programs reaped tremendous benefits from the work of Barbara Clark.

Always looking to improve access to justice, Barbara Clark was a quiet but forceful supporter of the Access to Justice Board. The ATJ Board has been central to coordinating and developing Washington State’s response to the need for a state-wide plan for providing and funding civil legal services.

Barbara was also the force behind the Equal Justice Coalition. Over the last ten years, with a big assist from Barbara

Clark, the EJC has been successful in preserving federal and state funding for legal services. Similarly, always looking to expand the resources available to solve what seems to be a constant funding crisis, Barbara was a quiet but forceful advocate for expanding IOLTA to Limited Practice Officers. And when the LPO rule passed, and then spawned litigation, Barbara remained steadfast at the helm of the Legal Foundation as it defended the rule all the way to the United States Supreme Court. Lesser folk might have withdrawn from the fray -- Barbara did not. She supervised the litigation closely, but as Dave Burman, one of the counsel for the Legal Foundation observed, always “in a supportive way that contributed to a strong team performance and ultimately, success.” She was, as usual, a friend of the legal profession.

It is as Barbara’s incredible career at the Legal Foundation comes to a close that we celebrate her contributions with the presentation of the Friend of the Legal Profession Award. Barbara plans to reside in Mt. Vernon, Washington when, at year end, she retires from the Legal Foundation. She will long be remembered here in King County as a true friend: always working to make the legal profession’s commitment to equal justice for all a reality. n