Tom Fitzpatrick grew up in Anaconda, Montana, a hard scrabble smelter town, in a blue-collar family. He graduated from the University of Montana with highest honors in 1973. He then went to the University of Chicago Law School, and served as President of the Law Students Association.
Tom’s first legal job was in Chicago where he served as the assistant to Wm. B. Spann of Atlanta, GA, during his terms as President-Elect and President of the American Bar Association (“ABA”). Bill Spann was a recognized giant in the legal profession at the time. Spann was one of a few prominent Southern lawyers who actively worked to support civil rights, being one of the founders of the Lawyer’s Committee on Civil Rights, and the ABA Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities.
These two formative years inculcated a passion in Tom to use the organized bar to help those less fortunate and for the legal profession to have well developed professional standards. He brought that passion to Seattle when he came to practice here in 1978. Since then, Tom has spent his career advancing the cause of justice and excellence in the practice of law by almost every avenue imaginable — private lawyer, public lawyer, teacher, thought leader, and advocate.
As a practitioner, he was a partner and leader at small, medium, and large law firms — Talmadge/Fitzpatrick, Stafford Frey Cooper, and Karr Tuttle Campbell. In public practice as Assistant Chief of the Snohomish County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office Civil Division. He was also Executive Director of Snohomish County.
A nationally recognized expert on professional standards, Tom is the only person in the country to serve both on the ABA Model Code of Judicial Conduct Commission and the Model Rules for Judicial Disciplinary Enforcement Commission. He taught professional responsibility for two decades, both to bar students, and as an Adjunct Professor at Seattle University School of Law, to say nothing of the dozens of CLEs he has taught. Most recently, Tom was critical in the KCBA’s historic effort to have the ABA adopt Resolution 400, calling for the United States Supreme Court to adopt a binding code of ethics.
Tom’s ceaseless work on access to justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion in the legal profession spans four decades. He led the cause of young lawyers at the WSBA, including creating its Young Lawyers Division. He has supported and advanced the cause of increasing the power and visibility of women in the legal profession through his advocacy and mentorship. He has advanced the rights of immigrants, including chairing the ABA Commission on Immigration’s project to write the first Standards for the Representation and Detention of Unaccompanied Minors in Immigration Proceedings. He skillfully floor managed its adoption by the ABA House of Delegates. Given the recent challenges with unaccompanied children seeking refuge in the U.S., the Standards have been the guide for lawyers in how to represent these children and for humane treatment while their cases are pending.
Finally, the recounting of Tom’s storied career would not be complete without mentioning his advancement of LGBTQ+ rights. Elected as the first openly gay member of the ABA Board of Governors, Tom persuaded the ABA to submit an amicus brief to the US Supreme Court in Boy Scouts of America v. Dale. In the wake of that effort, the ABA became a leader in the fight for equality, creating its first Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity.
Tom’s crucial role in the gay rights movement was recognized when the Supreme Court legalized marriage equality. He was awarded the ABA’s Stonewall Award along with the lawyer who founded the marriage equality campaign and the lawyer who argued the Obergefell case.
Tom did all this while raising two incredible kids, Simon and Rory, with his former wife and lifelong friend Margaret Doyle Fitzpatrick. His laugh is as infectious as his positive spirit that has propelled him to one of the most distinguished legal careers in the country, let alone in King County.
