Susan Craighead
By Judge Anne L. Ellington
It’s not easy to capture Susan Craighead in a few words because she is a study in contrasts. On the one hand, there’s the résumé, which reveals astonishing achievement. On the other hand, there’s the person — warm and funny and quiet.
Susan’s background tends to come as a surprise to people who know her, but don’t know her history. Born in Boston, raised in Vermont, Susan graduated magna cum laude from Princeton, where she wrote her thesis on legal questions raised by the 1984 Union Carbide explosion in Bhopal. As an undergrad, she worked as a reporter for the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and the Miami Herald.
After Princeton, she went to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, and followed that by interning for The Economist. Then, she became a journalist full time, and worked for two years reporting on courts and general news at The [Louisville] Courier-Journal.
Next, Harvard Law — cum laude. While there, she interned for the Alabama Capital Representation Resource Center and the federal defender in San Diego. Afterward, she clerked for Justice Shirley Abrahamson, now chief justice in Wisconsin, and one of the most highly regarded jurists in the country.
Afterward, she and her husband Shane Rock came to Washington. Susan became a public defender at The Defender Association, where she worked for seven years. The last three years were divided between three-strikes and predator cases.
In 2002, Susan came to Division One as a commissioner. I talked with some colleagues, and the consensus goes like this: Susan is incredibly intelligent — meaning, she is not just bright, she actually thinks about things, thinks hard and well. She is curious and hardworking. She is direct and plain spoken. She always has complete command of whatever she’s working on; she knows everything about it.
But she insists upon the right analysis and takes no shortcuts. So, she checks herself, and she always wants new ideas and information. I always looked forward to talking to her about her cases because she would come in with the darnedest, most convoluted problems and get right to the heart of the matter.
One of Susan’s hallmarks at the Court of Appeals was making sure that cases involving children and families were set in front of the judges for argument. She just quietly made sure that cases needing published decisions were identified and that counsel was appointed if need be. As a result, we decided many more such cases in the past few years.
In fact, children and families are at the center of Susan’s life and interests. First comes her own family — her husband Shane and her son, the wonderful Daniel. Susan served on the Board of the Program for Early Parent Support, has been active in Spruce Street School and is co-chair of the King County Bar Association Community Legal Services Committee. She worked with Justice Bobbe Bridge to expedite dependency and termination appeals.
These accomplishments speak for themselves. But the person — Susan Craighead — has to be experienced.
Susan has great reserves of energy and determination. But unlike many people who accomplish much, Susan is quiet and calm and usually laughing. There’s no commotion. Her energy is like the deep ocean currents — you don’t see them, but things are happening. And so with Susan, when you turn around, she’s organized a conference, or revitalized a nonprofit, or put on a party in the backyard for 16 six-year-olds, or got her garden ready for a tour and a thousand people are traipsing past the climbing hydrangeas she tends herself. She is not afraid of big projects and she gets stuff done.
There is another part to the story of Susan Craighead: She has overcome a lifetime of serious illness. One reason she became an excellent cook is the plain necessity of figuring out how to make tasty food that can be eaten without chewing. Susan was born with a disease called recessive dystrophic epidermolysis bullosa, which fortunately is rare, because most infants do not survive. But Susan was born to two physicians, who said, “No way!”1
Her disease is a genetic disorder in which blisters form on skin and, in Susan’s case, on internal surfaces as well. Shortly after she came to the Court of Appeals, I saw her with a huge shipping box. I asked what on earth she was carrying and she said, offhandedly, “This is a month’s supply of bandages.”
Susan long ago learned to manage her disease gracefully and it seems never to stop her from what she wants to do. She takes only Tylenol. She does not allow the disease to affect the meaningful parts of her life: her work and her friends and her family. Instead, she immerses herself in things she cares about. I sometimes think her gift of intense focus is something she learned to avoid being limited by her disease.
By now you know that Susan personifies the qualities of an excellent judge. She has love and instinct for the law, deep respect and love for people, a warm heart and a hard head, a gift for clear thinking and communication, and the sense of humor we all need to get through the court day. She will make us proud.
Judge Anne L. Ellington sits on Division One of the Washington Court of Appeals. The contents of this article are excerpted from Judge Ellington’s remarks at Judge Craighead’s October 26, 2007 swearing-in ceremony, all of which — unfortunately — could not be republished here.
1 Judge Craighead’s father is Dr. John Craighead, one of the nation’s foremost pathologists and well known to many attorneys in the Seattle area as a leading expert in asbestos medicine.
Bruce Heller
By Judge John Erlick
When Judge Heller asked me to speak at his swearing-in, I was truly honored. For me — and I suspect — for both of us, it was full circle.
It was a little more than 10 years ago that I first met Bruce, when we were working at the same law firm together and soon realized that among our commonalities was our mutual aspiration to become judges. So, there were after-hour confabs in his office or mine, Friday night Sabbath dinners at his home with his wife Deborah and their two daughters. We talked about the challenges a judicial career would bring, the breadth of issues, the intellectual satisfaction and the ability to serve the community and to make a difference.
So, now that Judge Heller has been appointed to the bench, what can we expect from him? Well, about two years after I became a judge, I decided to undergo a judicial evaluation by attorneys who appeared in my courtroom. When the evaluation panel returned with comments, one of the common themes was that I ran a hot bench — highly interactive, peppering attorneys with questions, vocal.
Well let me be the first to coin the term “cool bench.” Deliberative, thoughtful, compassionate, analytical, patient and incisive — all qualities that Judge Heller will bring to the bench. So, where do such qualities come from? As with each of us, they are part of our upbringing and our experiences:
- Judge Heller and his brother were the first generation in their family to be born in this country.
- His father came here in the late 1930s from Germany to escape the Nazi persecution of Jews.
- His mother, who was not Jewish, joined a small, anti-Hitler resistance group as a teenager and was one of only a few in her group to survive.
- After World War II, she met Bruce’s father, who by then was an American officer stationed in Germany.
- Bruce spent the first six years of his life in Santa Cruz, California, where his father was the editorial writer for the local newspaper. When he was six, his father joined the U.S. Foreign Service.
- For the next 12 years he lived in Reykjavik, where he learned Icelandic …
- Berlin, where he learned German …
- Copenhagen, where he learned Danish, …
- and Rome, where he learned Latin.
As a graduate of the Boston Latin School, I’m so excited to have someone else on the bench with whom I can speak Latin! Salus in decens unum judico. Although Bruce may understand it, for those few non-Latin speakers, “Congratulations on becoming a judge.”
At age nine, Bruce returned to the U.S. for a vacation and spoke only German. Bruce is still fluent in German. There was a time when I was intimidated by people who were fluent in German. However, I finally figured out that there are only 20 words in the German vocabulary and they just keep moving them around and sticking them together.
After graduating from high school in Rome, Bruce entered Stanford, where he met a freshman named Deb Shenfeld. They have been married for 26 years and have two daughters, Sarah and Eden.
In moving around and living in so many places, Bruce learned to adapt, observe and accommodate to different languages, peoples, cultures and beliefs.
Professionally, Judge Heller has a breadth of diverse experience. After graduating from Boalt Law School in Berkeley, Bruce moved to Alaska to clerk for U.S. District Court Judge James M. Fitzgerald. His wisdom, common sense and down-to-earth manner were aspirational qualities for Bruce.
After the academic experience of writing legal opinions, he decided he wanted to become a trial lawyer. So, he joined the Alaska Public Defender Agency, where he worked for 21/2 years representing indigent criminal defendants.
He moved to Seattle in 1982 and since that time has been a labor and employment lawyer: one of the few labor lawyers in Seattle who have represented all sides — unions, employees and employers.
Bruce has demonstrated a great ability to be a neutral arbiter and a thoughtful, open-minded decision maker. As a labor negotiator, he has been on both sides of the table, and he has successfully served as a mediator and arbitrator.
I would like to thank Gov. Gregoire for making this judicious appointment. Our bench, the bar and the community are all richer by Judge Heller joining us as a King County Superior Court judge. Bruce, I leave you with this aspiration from Deuteronomy:
“Justice, justice shall you pursue so that you may live.”
Judge Heller: Congratulations and welcome to the bench.
Judge John Erlick is the chief civil judge of the King County Superior Court. He graciously provided his remarks from Judge Heller’s November 15, 2007 swearing-in ceremony, which have been gently edited for publication here.
Kimberley Prochnau
By Faith Ireland
Judge Kim Prochnau comes from solid Northwest stock — her father grew up in Everett and her mother in Darrington. Kim is the granddaughter of a champion speed tree climber and daughter of the timber bowl queen. Her dad is still a forester, with a business cruising and surveying timber.
Kim grew up on five acres in the Oregon countryside, as a “4 H’er.” She loved the freedom — when chores and homework were done — to roam and ramble around in the woods until dark. She went to school in a three-room school and demonstrated her keen intellect early, as she was the first girl to win the spelling bee. At 14, she moved with her mother to the big city — Eugene — where she was graduated from Sheldon High School.
Judge Prochnau’s grandmother Florence is her biggest hero. After she was widowed, with a sixth-grade education, she raised her three sons with a newspaper distribution route in Everett. Kim learned many things from her grandmother, but not how to cook. She credits her mother, who passed away nine years ago, and her late grandmother — and all their cooking and canning — for the fact that her son, Zachery, is 6-foot-3.
Kim’s mother always believed that her children were smart and could do anything. She was right. Judge Prochnau was the first girl in her family to graduate from college, receiving a B.A. degree in psychology at U.C. Berkeley. She earned her J.D. at Seattle University in 1982.
Her degree in psychology has served her well in her career as lawyer, commissioner and judge. Her training helps her really listen to people and help them come to a result both sides need, whether it is a discovery motion, settlement conference or jury instructions.
Judge Prochnau’s career in the judiciary began in 1994 when she was appointed a court commissioner and pro tem judge. Since then, Judge Prochnau has demonstrated over and again her sharp intellectual abilities, writing and drafting skills, and a practical understanding of the law and its consequences for real individuals, families, businesses and communities. She is a team player and favors the systems approach to problem solving. Listing the calendars she has served on would be a catalog of everything done at Superior Court.
When I asked her about her hobbies, she sheepishly confessed that committee work is at the top. Her Supreme Court committees and boards have included the Certified Professional Guardian Board, the Access to Justice Board, Unified Family Court and the Domestic Relations Commission. At Sup-erior Court, she has chaired the Family Law Local Rules Drafting Sub-committee, the Pro Se Family Law workgroup and many other court management committees for rules and technology and education.
Kim Prochnau enriches the bench with intellect, compassion, enthusiasm and a gentle professional demeanor.
By Michele Storms
My first job after law school was at Evergreen Legal Services, a statewide civil legal aid office and the predecessor to Columbia Legal Services and the Northwest Justice Project. My first-ever supervisor was Kim Prochnau.
I eventually learned that Kim went to law school with the same goals that I had: to become a lawyer so that I could advocate for and also educate and empower these people, our friends and neighbors, to help them overcome these difficulties. In fact, it was her time as a paralegal in a civil legal aid office in Pasco that was the launching point for her legal education.
At ELS, Kim demonstrated her intense commitment to family and gave me a sense of what it was to be a committed lawyer and mother. From my first day, I was blessed with six years of exhilarating days being taught by her to be a lawyer who is diligent, detailed and prepared on all cases. To be a lawyer who is kind, compassionate, clear and firm with clients. To be a lawyer who takes risks, engages with the community, recruits others to do good work. And just as importantly, to be a person who takes time for the pleasures of life outside the office with family and friends — to live a life in balance.
I was encouraged by her early on to get involved with the community. A full caseload of domestic violence cases can wear a person down. But having the opportunity to work to achieve justice on multiple fronts was powerfully energizing and effective. So I was sent to work on bar committees, to provide training to lawyers who would do pro bono work, to provide training to community groups about their legal rights. In this way I could have an impact on my clients’ lives, not only by representing them, but also by giving them empowering information and encouraging others to represent them. This was exactly what I had hoped to accomplish as a lawyer.
So, if I have a message to share about what Judge Prochnau stands for, it is a high quality of effort and a strong commitment to equal justice. There is no doubt in my mind that her service to the court and to our justice system will continue and increase from her new vantage point.
Judge Prochnau truly stands for the very concepts of justice and equal access to justice that we should hold dear.
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Former Supreme Court Justice Faith Ireland and Michele Storms, executive director of the William H. Gates Public Service Law Program at the University of Washington School of Law, gladly shared with the Bar Bulletin their comments from Judge Prochnau’s recent swearing-in ceremony. This article is excerpted from those comments. Space limitations precluded us from running them in their entirety.
