At heart, Judge Bill Downing is a poet. He loves words. He always has. Perhaps it dates back to a New York Times crossword puzzle completed at the age of 10. Certainly, it was long before he attended Vassar, where he was in the first class of men and where he met his wife Laura.
Never a shy or retiring logophile, in the early 1970s he had a head of hair so bushy he could scarcely fit through some doorways. After college, he and his brother rode motorcycles across the country. When they arrived in Washington and found they couldn't go farther west, he became a commercial fisherman. Law school wasn't even on his horizon. But as a poet, Judge Downing knows that language has power and he takes language seriously. So, in the end, learning the language of the law and becoming a lawyer was a natural for him.
After attending the U.W. School of Law and working in the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office (where he and Judge Robert Lasnik handled the Wah Mee murder cases), Bill Downing was appointed to the King County Superior Court Bench in 1989 where he has become a thoughtful and highly respected judge. But there's more.
He is also a teacher, having devoted countless hours over the last 20 years to helping high school students gain a better understanding and respect for how the justice system works and for the lawyer's role in it. He is one of the prime movers - and often the author - of annual statewide mock trial competitions sponsored by the YMCA.
Many of us focus only on the adult world of the law and forget how important it is to get young people engaged in real world exercises in civics, and how much work it takes. But the students - and their teachers - know it well.
Rick Nagel, a Franklin High School teacher of 30 years' standing and a member of the Board of Directors of the National High School Mock Trial Championships, calls Judge Downing's work, including his case materials for the mock trial competitions, "masterful" and "prodigious." He lauds the "level of excellence and care that every single case written or reviewed by Bill displayed." He praises Judge Downing's efforts to ensure that, despite the extraordinarily competitive nature of the program, students learn "the humility that is expected in victory and the good sportsmanship that is expected in defeat." We call it professionalism.
Nagel also compliments Judge Downing for the time he takes to send personal notes to teachers and coaches identifying specific words they had uttered and actions they had taken that promoted in students the deeper qualities the competition seeks to develop.
One recent student participant talks of how Judge Downing once gave him a three-hour ride back to Seattle from a competition gathering. The student took advantage of the opportunity to ask detailed questions about mock trials, and says, "Not only was he eager to answer me, but he did so with a patience that still surprises me - it is quite the feat to explain the rules of evidence to a 16-year-old high schooler."
In an article on the YMCA's Mock Trial program, the Seattle Times quoted Judge Downing as saying that few of the student participants go on to become lawyers, but, "One hundred percent of them go on to become better citizens."
Judge Downing doesn't stop there. He has spent years working on the Pattern Jury Instruction Committee and is active in the Bench Bar Press Committee. He chairs the Washington court system's "Fire Brigade," acting as a point person to improve the interaction between the courts and the press. And, as many remember, two years ago he wrote a moving and eloquent decision addressing the issue of marriage equality. He still receives fan mail (as well as the other kind) from citizens all across the country.
Judge Downing has found many ways to give credence to the concept that words and actions have significance. As a judge and educator, Bill Downing pays careful attention to both.
