By Anne-Marie Istafanous

The KCBA Young Lawyers Division is proud to honor Felix Gavi Luna as Outstanding Young Lawyer. Gavi was chosen from an impressive field of nominees, all of whom are a credit to the profession and the community. Gavi, a 32-year-old shareholder in the firm Heller Ehrman, LLP, stands out because of his dedication to people, as well as causes. Anyone who spends five minutes with Gavi knows that he is a people person and that he masterfully talks the talk (about virtually anything). But what makes Gavi truly extraordinary and richly deserving of this award is that he tirelessly walks the walk.

For Gavi’s extensive pro bono work benefiting underrepresented, disabled and indigent groups, he was named “Angel of the Bar” by Washington Law & Politics and received Heller Ehrman’s prestigious Guggenhime award. Gavi’s pro bono work is “on the side” as he still manages to bill over 2,000 client hours each year, and is described by one of his colleagues as a “phenomenal litigator whose courtroom skills have been praised by so distinguished a federal judge as the late William Dwyer.”

Gavi is also deeply involved in the University of Washington School of Law’s minority outreach program, is a lecturer in the UW trial advocacy program, and coaches the UW’s mock trial team (he most recently took his team to the national championships). Gavi rounds out his dedication to his profession with service to the King County Bar Foundation’s Bar Scholars Alumni Program and Future of the Law Institute and also as a member of the Washington Hispanic Bar Association judicial evaluation committee.

On weekends and evenings, he has volunteered as a basketball coach for the King County Parks and Recreation Department, and he graduated from the 2003 class of Leadership Tomorrow.

One can get exhausted just thinking about all Gavi’s commitments, and may be left wondering when and if Gavi ever sleeps. By the way, he does, but only about five hours per night.

Gavi’s two professional passions are civil rights and working with law students. With respect to civil rights, Gavi has taken on the distasteful, but critical, cases that most attorneys and law firms decline to handle. He has donated his time and services to ensure that indigent groups are not subject to “discretionary” permit fees in the exercise of their first amendment right to free speech, that hearing-impaired prisoners have access to sign language interpreters, and that civilly confined sex offenders receive adequate mental health care.

By representing what some think of as the “worst of the worst,” Gavi is defending the constitution, which he strongly endorses and refers to as “a nearly perfect document.” As Gavi explains, ensuring that constitutional principles apply to the “worst” of society is the best way to defend the document, since civil rights abuses are not usually directed at the “best” of society. Otherwise, everyone’s at risk when and if society changes its definition of the “worst.”

Gavi’s passion for law students, on the other hand, helps “feed his soul.” He loves teaching trial advocacy, and loves watching his mock trial teams develop from raw and nervous young students to confident and competent national championship contenders. He likens his teaching and coaching experience to “running through the tunnel,” a reference to Gavi’s passion for all things sports, particularly football.

He believes that taking yourself “there” is expected, but getting others “there” is even more rewarding. Everyone’s definition of “there” is different, but for Gavi, it means finding what he was meant to do. He passionately believes that he was born to do exactly what he is doing, and he absolutely loves it. So don’t worry Heller Ehrman, Gavi’s not going anywhere, except maybe Brazil --but that’s another story.

As you have probably gathered by now, what Gavi does is surpassed only by who Gavi is. Gavi has fifteen full or half siblings, nine of whom, including him, were raised by his single mother in Puerto Rico, the housing projects of Boston, and later the Beacon Hill area of Seattle where he graduated from Rainier Beach High School. In his 1994 University of Washington law school admission essay, Gavi wrote “my commitment to community is absolute and without qualification....I understand and accept that any future success I achieve will be discounted if I do nothing to help those who are less fortunate than myself....I carry with me not only my hopes and aspirations for success, but also the hopes and aspirations of those for whom I wish to be an example.”

Gavi clearly impressed the admissions committee and certainly did not disappoint. He graduated in 1997 with the highest honors Order of the Coif and Order of the Barristers. With his new law firm salary, Gavi unselfishly bought his mother her first house and continued to live with her for years to help raise his younger siblings. And more than ten years after writing his law school admission essay, Gavi continues to fulfill and deliver on his promise through his committed service to the legal profession, the Seattle community and his family. Talk about walking the walk. n