As crocus poke their heads, daffodils supply a ray of sunshine, and cherry blossoms pop, there is no question that spring is on its way. For many of us, these harbingers of spring also signal the time when our legal colleagues gather for inspiration and community at the King County Bar Foundation’s Annual Breakfast With Champions! This marquee event presents an opportunity to break bread with friends, past and present, and reflect on our roles and obligations as legal professionals. We’ll learn more about King County Bar Association’s mission and pro bono programs, hear from scholarship recipients, and leave with food for thought from the keynote speaker.
This year’s Breakfast features renowned best-selling author, acclaimed speaker, and philanthropist Steve Pemberton. Pemberton overcame adversity in his adolescence to become a senior executive at multiple companies where his edict was to improve organizational performance and advance inclusion efforts. Pemberton’s two memoirs, A Chance in the World and The Lighthouse Effect, are tales of resolve, courage, and resilience; they are reminders that no matter how broken our past, we can create new beginnings and provide spaces that welcome and support all comers. Equality, access, and opportunity are pillars of Pemberton’s professional and personal life, and his address is certain to resonate given the nation’s current climate.
Never has the King County Bar’s mission been so critical. As members of the state bar, we have both an ethical and moral obligation to provide and promote equity in the provision of legal services. Your support of the King County Bar Association is one way to say loud and clear that you believe in equity and change. In Washington State, more than 70 percent of low-income households experience at least one civil legal problem each year. A majority lack means for legal representation and must navigate our legal system alone. Those needs have only become more pronounced in recent years. Funds raised at the Breakfast help address these needs in two ways: first, by funding scholarships that help increase the equity and inclusivity of our bar; and second by providing robust pro bono services programs to provide services to those further from justice.
The King County Bar Association is unique (in the nation!) in that it provides and facilitates the provision of pro bono services both directly and through its many excellent pro bono programs. These programs all provide a platform for bar members to engage in pro bono services in areas they might not typically practice, amplifying the value of each dollar spent to support the KCBA. The KCBA uses a portion of your donations to provide training, screening, and professional liability insurance to our colleagues who donate their time and skills to these pro bono programs.
At the Breakfast, we will learn about just one of the King County Bar Association’s fantastic pro bono programs, the Domestic Violence Legal Advocacy Program (DV LEAD). The DV LEAD program, through both volunteers and staff attorneys, assists low income domestic violence survivors in domestic violence protection order cases, contested family law cases where children are at risk because of domestic violence, or where survivors have additional barriers to accessing the court system.
If you have not participated in the KCBA’s pro bono programs, now is a great time to start. To the many attorneys who have and do participate in these pro bono programs, thank you, and we look forward to seeing you again soon. Please remember, however, that volunteering time is not the only way to show your support for the KCBA.
I have the honor of serving as this year’s president of the King County Bar Foundation, which is the charitable arm of the KCBA. Our mission: raise funds to support KCBA’s pro bono service programs and to provide scholarships that promote inclusivity in the legal profession. The Breakfast is the KCBF’s primary fundraising event of the year, and we need your charitable contributions to support the KCBA’s mission to help bridge the gap for those to whom justice is inaccessible.
Please join us for the King County Bar Foundation’s Breakfast With Champions on Wednesday, May 6, 2025, at the Westin Seattle. It will be an early morning start at 7:30 a.m., so be sure to join us when the doors open at 7:00 a.m. for registration, coffee, tea, and great company. Come for the coffee and the company and leave inspired and ready to effect positive change in our community.
Emma Gillespie is the current King County Bar Foundation President and a member at Preg O’Donnell & Gillett where her practice focuses on defending people, businesses, schools, and governmental entities in civil litigation.
