Much to be Thankful For
With Thanksgiving leftovers still taking up some real estate in the refrigerator, I am in the mindset of considering all that I have to be thankful for. For me, the national election did not go way that I hoped it would, which initially led to tossing and turning at night. However, when I consider the leadership and structure of our county and state, I am thankful to live and practice in King County Washington. I work every day in a community that continues to value the rule of law, protects the rights of immigrants, reproductive rights and medical choice, embraces a code of ethics and does so with the support of leaders devoted to promoting diversity and inclusion.
Our next Governor, Bob Ferguson, demonstrated his willingness to tackle unconstitutional federal policy when the Washington State Office of the Attorney General (AGO) successfully challenged a travel ban in President Trump’s 2017 Executive Order on immigration. Many additional successful challenges followed. The AGO Civil Rights Division litigates a variety of claims ranging from sexual harassment against women and discrimination against agricultural workers to public accommodation cases assuring access to transgender members of the community. Last year, the AGO secured $1.5 million in federal funding to address a 40-year backlog of cold cases involving missing and murdered indigenous people. I am thankful that our next Governor begins his term with a history of building a team focused on protecting the rights of people who need legal representation to assert their civil rights.
I am grateful for diverse perspectives on our State Supreme Court, because I think diversity improves the quality of their work. Our State Supreme Court, composed primarily of women, including women from the Asian, Latina, Native American, African American and the LGBTQ communities stands in contrast to other state supreme courts. Our justices are children of immigrant and minority communities, many of whom are the first person in their families to graduate from college and law school. They, in turn, are working to eliminate barriers to becoming a member of the Washington Bar. In 2020, the Washington Supreme Court ordered the creation of the Washington Bar Licensure Task Force “to examine current and past bar examination methods, passage rates, and alternative licensure methods, assess disproportionate impacts on examinees of color and first-generation examinees, consider the need for alternatives to the current bar exam, and analyze those potential alternatives.”1 This year, the Court adopted the recommendations of the WSBA task force and we will soon welcome the first members to our Bar who achieve this goal through additional pathways authorized by the Court.
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to see what our future looks like in the King County legal community. I was invited to a reception for legal scholars who are recipients of scholarships provided to law students at the University of Washington School of Law and the Seattle University Law School. We heard from first generation legal scholars, who grew up without any firsthand knowledge about this profession, but ultimately came to see a career in the law as a means of promoting equity and inclusion. We were joined by leadership at the King County Bar Foundation, the KCBA, and the Honorable Samuel Chung, all present to offer support to the students about to join our profession. Listening to the stories of the law students about to become attorneys in King County was not only interesting; it was uplifting. I met some impressive people who are poised to become impressive members of our legal community. I hope you get a chance to meet them at the Breakfast of Champions next year.
I am also thankful for the opportunities I have had to work with some of the most intelligent, thoughtful and committed members of our profession, at the KCBA. They care about the future of our profession, the integrity of our bench, and access to justice. They are working to make this community a welcoming and thriving place for the legal scholars about to join us. They are even working on a national level to promote the values embraced by the KCBA. Perhaps you noticed that President Biden recently repeated the call for a binding code of judicial ethics, consistent with the American Bar Association’s adoption of the KCBA resolution for a binding code of ethics on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Finally, I am grateful for the support and mentorship I have experienced as a public sector attorney, practicing in King County. I did not personally know anyone in the legal profession before I entered law school, but I have had the good fortune to work with and for some outstanding people in our community. I am thankful that diversity is supported in my office and in my assignment. I work for the first woman and person of color elected to the office of King County Prosecutor and I am currently assigned as General Counsel for the King County Sheriff’s Office, where I work with the first woman of color to hold that office. Both offices actively promote equity and inclusion.
So, even though I remain disappointed about election results in the other Washington, I do have much to be thankful for. May the coming year bring us more opportunities to celebrate our shared goals and achievements and to advocate for those in our community in need of a legal champion.
1 Washington Supreme Court Order No. 25700-B-649, Nov. 20, 2020.
