By Presiding Judge Ketu Shah, DEI Committee Co-Chairs Judge Josephine Wiggs and Judge David Whedbee
On October 14, 2024, King County will celebrate Indigenous People’s Day. King County Superior Court recognizes that we provide service to a community, populated by residents from a rich variety of cultures and lived experiences. In recognition of this holiday marked by reflection and service, we wanted to take the opportunity to share with the Bar the significant work the Court is undertaking to improve and coordinate our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The Court’s Strategic Agenda
Every five years, the Court adopts a Strategic Agenda, which guides our goals and our plans for the coming half-decade. We recently completed this process. As we turned our attention to our 2024–2028 Strategic Agenda (This document, and all documents referenced herein, are posted for public review on our website), we kept in mind the Washington State Supreme Court issued a letter recognizing the obligation of the judiciary to address the “persistent and systemic” racism embedded in our culture and in our system of justice. The Supreme Court issued a call to action: “The legal community must recognize that we all bear responsibility for this on-going injustice, and that we are capable of taking steps to address it, if only we have the courage and the will.”
In adopting our 2024–2028 Strategic Agenda, we modified the Court’s Mission Statement to center our commitment to meeting the needs of King County’s diverse communities: “The mission of King County Superior Court is to equitably serve the diverse public by administering justice through accessible, inclusive, and unbiased forums for the fair, understandable, and timely resolution of legal matters.”
Words require action. The Court is now undertaking a series of initiatives to move us towards achieving that mission. The Court adopted DEI Principles Regarding Systemic Racism. This governance document includes:
- An affirmation of our independent and collective obligation to operate a court that recognizes and responds to systemic racism;
- A commitment that we will center equity in the governance of the Court;
- A recognition of the importance of prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the work of our committees;
- An assurance that we will support members of our court from all backgrounds; and
- A commitment to creating and adopting the tools necessary to implement these principles listed above.
We have begun the process of creating decision-making rubrics, to check our policy-making work and to ensure that we remain watchful for inequitable impacts and center our commitment to equity as we engage in the governance of the Court. We are developing trainings and other educational programs that align the work of our myriad committees and work groups to our DEI Principles.
We have also adopted a DEI Strategic Plan for all administrative staff. This plan recognizes that in order to “equitably serve the diverse public,” the Court’s staff must have the necessary skill sets to understand the “complex needs of a diverse population.” The DEI Strategic Plan recognizes, too, that our institution is staffed by a rich and diverse cross-section of the community, and that we must embrace and understand one another in order to foster “an internal culture of trust, learning, and inclusion.”
A group of leaders from our Court recently traveled to Boston to participate in a training on racial and ethnic disparities in the justice system, thereby building alliances with other courts engaged in similar work. That group is now working to reproduce this curriculum for our use in King County, to be provided as in-person training and via topical pieces posted on the Court’s internal webpage. Under our CAO’s leadership, the Court is distributing DEI curriculum through our internal website, and has created a Crucial Conversations podcast.
The Road Ahead
As judicial officers and staff, we have spent the past two years grappling with our priorities and our vision for the future. This work has been both challenging and deeply rewarding. It is also only the first step of a long process, one which we have committed ourselves to with enthusiasm and determination. As always, we welcome feedback and conversation on how our court can serve the King County Bar and the members of our community. Please reach out to further that conversation.
