Walking the Walk to the Westin for the Breakfast with Champions!
Each year the King County Bar Foundation hosts an annual event, the Breakfast with Champions. The Breakfast is our chance to honor the hard work of Bar Association staff and volunteers, highlight the Bar Association’s services, and build community with you, our champions of the law. I hope to see you there to say thank you in person!
This year we are excited to welcome Deborah Archer as our keynote speaker. Ms. Archer is President of the American Civil Liberties Union and a professor at New York University School of Law. We have much to learn from Ms. Archer. She is an expert in civil rights, civil liberties, and racial justice who has also extensively studied housing discrimination and infrastructure. Civil liberties are front and center in our daily news feeds, and the reach of our constitution is routinely tested. Wherever we land on the political spectrum, we all hold our civil liberties dear. The Breakfast will be a great opportunity to learn from a lawyer who has made it her life’s work to protect civil liberties and enforce civil rights.
The Breakfast with Champions is on Wednesday, May 8, 2024 at the Westin Seattle. It will be an early morning start at 7:30 a.m., so be sure to join us starting at 7:00 a.m. for registration, coffee, tea, and good company.
As members of this service profession, we are lucky. We are lucky to practice here in King County, where we have a reputation for civility and professionalism, built on a foundation of respect for the rule of law and a willingness to engage in healthy discourse. A hallmark of our local bar is the work of lawyers like you, who care for our broader community. That is reflected in a commitment to pro bono services.
The Washington Supreme Court’s Civil Legal Needs Study found that in Washington state, more than 70 percent of low-income households experience at least one civil legal problem each year. The majority of them must navigate our legal system alone, without legal representation. Those needs have only become more pronounced in recent years. You stepped up, through the KCBA, developing pro bono programs to share your skills and support our community. One of those programs is KCBA’s Neighborhood Legal Clinics.
This year we celebrate the 50th year of the Neighborhood Legal Clinics (NLC) program. In addition to hearing from Ms. Archer, Breakfast attendees will learn more about the good work of NLC. NLC fills many gaps in our legal system by offering free limited legal advice and referrals to King County residents (and Washington State residents with legal issues in King County) who might otherwise have no access to the legal system. The NLC does this with your help, by providing consultations with trained volunteer attorneys. Through support from volunteer attorneys, NLC handles over 2,100 client appointments per year.
The work of NLC is critical. NLC offers general legal clinics to handle a wide range of civil legal issues, including landlord-tenant disputes, questions about small claims, and employment law. NLC also manages specialty legal clinics to address family law, debt and bankruptcy, and civil rights issues.
Challenging times cause some to withdraw. Not us. Here in King County, we don’t just talk. We walk the walk by engaging with each other to address challenges. And that is what I ask from you now. Have you wondered recently what you can do to help?
Support comes in many forms. We are all trained advocates. If you haven’t had the chance to do pro bono work with KCBA yet, please make 2024 the year. KCBA’s talented staff will guide you to the right program that fits with your skill set and availability. We also need your charitable contributions.
This year I have the privilege of serving as president of the King County Bar Foundation. The Foundation is the charitable arm of the KCBA. Our mission is straightforward: we raise funds for two purposes. First, we raise funds to support KCBA’s pro bono service programs, like NLC. Second, we raise funds to provide grants for minority law students. Our work depends on you.
I look forward to seeing you soon, walking the walk to the Westin to celebrate the Breakfast with Champions.
