By Judge Ketu Shah,
King County Superior Court Presiding Judge
Civics Stewardship Program Starts in a Season of Gratitude
As we are in the middle of harvest season and the Festival of Lights, I want to thank the King County Bar community for being partners with our court to improve accessibility to courts, championing the rule of law, and ensuring we work toward a more civil society. The work each of you does — from the mundane to the complex, from explaining court proceedings to your neighbors to zealously advocating your clients’ interests — is noteworthy. It is that passion for the rule of law that makes our society function.
As part of that work, we will have our annual Bench Bar Conference on Nov. 11 from 8:30 a.m. to 2:15 p.m. at the Seattle Convention Center. We will be formally launching the KCBA Civics Stewardship Program, where we will present how all of us can speak about the rule of law in a way that emphasizes what we all have in common. That is, we can all speak about the importance of everyone presenting their side, of having rules that apply to everyone, and most importantly, of resolving disputes in a civil manner.
In the Bulletin, I have talked about these important principles, but now it is for all of us to take on this work and spread it to our communities. Internally, the judiciary has had local and statewide training about how to ethically speak about the rule of law. Our KCBA portal will include concrete tools to help folks talk about these ideas, including slide decks, videos, and hypotheticals. What we envision is one judge and one attorney speaking to a community group about the function of lawyers, judges, and courts. This is intended for any size group, whether a neighborhood gathering at a community center or a larger event.
We are having this conference on Veterans Day, and I cannot think of a better way to celebrate our courageous veterans who sacrificed everything to defend our founding principles — freedom and the rule of law. I encourage you to participate in the Civics Stewardship Program.
We are also very close to having our budget finalized, and again, I want to thank all the members who have participated in the process of reminding our local leaders about the importance of the courts. Our local King County leaders, both executive and county council, have been very supportive of the courts, and your advocacy has made a difference. We are the largest court in the state and face challenges when laws change because of the scale involved. It can be frustrating when it takes time to ramp up our resources, but I am impressed with your advocacy and with our court staff and clerk’s office implementing new processes and technology to make our court more accessible. They are amazing at creating systems with limited funds and leveraging technology to be more efficient. We are continuously reviewing our processes to improve scheduling, so stay attuned to the Clerk’s Alerts (via https://kingcounty.gov/dept/dja) for changes that may come.
As we transition to the new year, we are planning department assignments and new chiefs. Our new presiding judge will be Judge Averil Rothrock, and our new assistant presiding judge will be Judge Tanya Thorp. I will have more to say about them in December, but rest assured the court is in good hands when they take over in January 2026.
Department assignments are a complicated process that tries to place judges in settings that address the needs of the court and ensure the timely resolution of cases. We will be making those decisions shortly; practitioners, please keep an eye out for notices of cases being transferred to a new judicial officer. The transfer notices will go out in November, but the effective date will be mid-January. The newly assigned judicial officers will hear those matters after mid-January.
As always, we welcome feedback and conversation about how our court can serve the King County Bar and the members of our community. Please reach out to further this conversation.
