Three years before Washington became a State, King County Bar came into existence, built upon the social rubble of the anti-Chinese riots of 1886. It was founded, in part, to condemn and censure those attorneys who had participated in the vigilante action against Chinese immigrants.1 In the nearly 150 years since its founding, the Bar has continued to champion the disenfranchised and advocate for change, as exemplified by this whistlestop, and in no way exhaustive, tour through the history of KCBA.
The era of the founding of KCBA in 1886 was fraught with unrest and social tension, yet the bar unflinchingly recognized class divisions and put forth its first resolution soon after the Bar was established. Drafted by Thomas Burke, it expressed two ideals: 1) The law as an institution is and should be neutral in any conflict between the classes; and 2) a harmony within the classes would bring harmony to all.2 Indeed, championing equity in access to the law and within the legal profession itself is still one of KCBA’s foundational policies, and while the current KCBA mission encompasses much more than class as a cause for inclusivity, this initial resolution was radical for the times. In 1906, the Seattle Bar Association was incorporated as a voluntary professional association and members continued to challenge the status quo.
The fledgling Seattle Bar Association took up the cause of votes for women from the very beginning. Women’s suffrage in Washington did not occur in a linear fashion, and the vote was given and taken away from women many times between the 1850s and 1910 when it was enshrined in law. The first woman to practice law in Washington state was Lelia J. Robinson. She had been refused admission to the bar in Massachusetts, so she came to Seattle in 1884 while the woman’s suffrage law was in force and was appointed to defend a penniless Chinese man charged with smuggling. Years later, Judge C H Hanford, who was the prosecutor in the same case, reminisced that when Lelia Robinson won, the many women spectators in the courtroom erupted into “irrepressible joy.”3
It would take decades for the rights of women, both outside and within the legal profession, to be established as a cultural norm. In 1970, some 60 years after women in Washington were finally granted their votes, the Bar passed a resolution: they would hold no further meetings at the Rainier, College, or Washington Athletic Clubs where male-only meetings were the standard. Those clubs soon changed their policies, but unfortunately the work towards women’s rights is still ongoing today, as women’s bodily autonomy and access to healthcare are being stripped nationwide.
As time marched on and the First World War gave way to Prohibition and the Great Depression, both the public and the Bar became very well aware of the plight of the poor. By the end of the 1930s, after a decade of hard economic times, the Seattle Bar Association’s trustees passed a motion to appoint a committee charged with investigating the provision of free legal aid locally. Seattle was one of the first cities in the country whose Bar Association had established, at its own cost and expense, a Legal Aid Bureau staffed with a lawyer.4
By 1941, the Bar had elected its first female Trustee to the Board, Mary H. Alford. However, progress for equity in the law for all citizens soon took a backward step with the Japanese Internment. Citizens and lawyers alike were well informed about the war rumbling in Europe, and when war looked like an inevitability for the USA, the Bar began waiving its dues for members in active military duty. Then the inevitable happened: the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, and war was declared. Distrust of the Japanese culminated with President Roosevelt’s expulsion order in 1942, mandating the expulsion and detention of 110,000 people of Japanese ancestry on the west coast. On April 21, 1942, Seattle’s 7,000 Japanese-American citizens were given one week’s notice of their forced evacuation. While there was little organized opposition from the Bar regarding the treatment of Japanese citizens during World War Two, this reflected the tenor of the times. Even the ACLU, who had several members representing Japanese defendants, insisted that these members not forthrightly challenge the constitutionality of the internment and associated curfews in their arguments. In some cases, the post-war quest by Japanese-Americans for justice regarding their unconstitutional detention took over 4 decades to be realized.5
The post-war years saw a boom in law students at the University of Washington, many of them veterans. Given academic credit for their service, it was easy to graduate in less than three years. This new batch of lawyers, after passing the three-day bar exam used at the time, sought membership in the Seattle Bar Association. By 1949, a new committee had been established: The Young Lawyers Committee. These new lawyers revitalized the Bar’s interest in the Legal Aid Committee and Legal Aid Bureau.6
The 1950s ushered in an extended phase of outreach by the Bar, both within the local legal profession and the community. New committees were formed, including the Continuing Legal Education and Lawyer Referral Service Committees. The ongoing concern with the administration of the courts was a key focus at the time, as was providing appointed counsel for indigent defendants who wanted to appeal their convictions. In 1957, the first edition of the Bar Bulletin was published, and in 1958, the Board approved changing the name from the Seattle Bar Association to the Seattle-King County Bar Association.7
The 1960s was a decade that started full of optimism and eventually gave way to disillusion. Continuing its commitment to community outreach, in 1960 the Bar began sponsoring radio and television programs on KING covering various aspects of the law. Another TV series sponsored by SKCBA and WSBA on KCTS started in 1969. The first episode was called “The Limits of Protest.” 8
The Lawyer Referral Service opened in 1961 to meet the many requests for attorney referrals from the local community. This was maintained alongside the Legal Aid Bureau, which provided assistance for people unable to pay for legal services. Meanwhile the Young Lawyers Section (YLS) continued to strive for change and actively supported pro bono work. Many volunteered at the newly established Legal Service Centers, all three of which were in neighborhoods where there was growing concern about racial discrimination.
1968 brought unrest nationwide and the assassinations of Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy. By 1970, anti-war protests at the University of Washington and on the streets of Seattle were occurring nearly daily. While the Bar was cautious in its approach to the question of the Vietnam War, it was very conscious of protecting the civil liberties of those protesting the war. When heavy-handed tactics were used on an encampment at UW by the Seattle police, members of the Bar Association, including then-President William Gates, Sr., met with the mayor regarding the conduct of the police, and continued to urge and monitor changes in the police force to ensure such occurrences did not happen again.9
In 1969, the issue of diversity within the Bar took precedence. The ever-engaged Mr. Gates was instrumental in instituting scholarships to minority law students at Seattle University and University of Washington Law schools that the Bar continues to award today. Since then, over $3 million has been distributed, all raised through donations.
Onto the 1970s. 1972 was a landmark year in that the YLS passed a resolution regarding Watergate, urging the funding of a special prosecutor; and Betty Fletcher, founder and first editor of the Bar Bulletin, was elected the first woman President of the Bar.
In 1974, three members of the YLS established the first Neighborhood Legal Clinic, a program that has expanded over the proceeding decades to over 40 locations and which celebrates its 50th Anniversary this year. The same year, the Bar issued a resolution calling for President Nixon’s impeachment.
With pro bono offerings at the Bar expanding, along with the need to fund the the minority law scholarships, the King County Bar Foundation was established in 1979 as a non-profit devoted to fundraising. The KCBF continues to support the Bar’s pro bono services programs and scholarships to this day.
Throughout the 1980s, the Bar grew its membership and its pro bono offerings while keeping pace with the growing legal profession and the changes within it. In the ‘90s, the focus turned to the War On Drugs and its disproportionate consequences for communities of color. In 1993, the Bar issued a report entitled “Time To End The War On Drugs?” This was followed up in 2007 with a resolution calling for the legalization of marijuana.
The new Millennium has seen challenges and change for the now-named King County Bar Association (the Bar embraced its history and returned to its original name in 1993). In 2011, the Bar celebrated its 125th anniversary; accolades included a proclamation from the mayor and a Goldmark Award for service. In 2013, the Bar once again threw its proverbial hat into the public policy ring by issuing a resolution calling for the end of the death penalty. Public policy advocacy had by then been a long and strong facet of the Bar’s work toward positive change.
As the teen years of the 21st century turned to the 20s, the Bar continued to operate within the changed circumstances of a global pandemic, and experienced unprecedented rapid growth and changes in staffing. In 2023, the Bar passed a resolution calling for the Supreme Court of the United States to adopt a binding code of ethics. This resolution was in turn adopted and passed by the American Bar Association, leading to SCOTUS caving to a precedent of legal opinion and adopting a (non-binding and self-regulated) Code of Ethics.
And here we are. 2024. As ever, King County Bar is championing those marginalized in our local communities while looking to the future in a changing world. While KCBA’s founders might not recognize the organization they started, the foundations they laid remain firm. Long may it continue.
NOTE: It’s hard to cover all the fascinating details of the Bar’s long history in such a small space. Out of necessity I can only outline a few highlights throughout the years. Apologies if there are instances you deem important that aren’t included, but if so, I would encourage you to write an article about them for a future issue of Bar Bulletin. If you are interested in learning more about KCBA’s 19th and 20th century history, I highly recommend reading Profanity Hill: The King County Bar Association’s Story, by Marc Lampson. You can get your copy at www.kcba.org/profanityhill.
Sophie Petersen is KCBA’s Marketing & Communications Specialist. She can be reached by email at sophiep@kcba.org.
1 From Profanity Hill page 23
2 Page 26
3 Page 39
4 Page 59
5 Pages 63–67
6 Pages 71–72
7 Page 75
8 Page 82
9 Page84
