KCBA 2025-26 Membership Year by the Numbers
By Bridget Schuster with help from the Member Services Team
The 2025–26 membership year was a special one! Not least because the Member Services Department added 2 new staff members: David Swidler joined us as Events Coordinator, and Habtamu Kabeto joined us as our new Sections Coordinator. Welcome!
Here are a few more stats from an exciting year:
KCBA’s CLE department hosted 8 day-long CLEs, including Bench Bar Conference, Estate Planning for the 99%, Family Law Hot Topics, Guardianship & Elder Law Hot Topics, Aviation Conference, Title 11 Court Visitor Training (initial certification day 1 and recertification day 2), and Probate Administration. We had an impressive 1,062 live registrants for our CLE events. In December 2025, we also hosted a fun “12 Days of Free-LE’s” event, with 12 different CLE videos made free for members, one per day leading up to December 25.
In cooperation with the King County Superior Court, KCBA hosted 3 formal in-person swearing-in ceremonies (two in the fall and one in the spring) this year, in addition to smaller monthly virtual and in-person ceremonies. A total of 810 new attorneys were sworn in this membership year, with 174 sworn in at our formal events and 636 entering the profession at one of the monthly ceremonies.
Our hardworking Judicial Candidate Evaluation Committee evaluated 27 judicial candidates this year. And speaking of judges, we had 19 sitting judges and 6 commissioners speak at our one-hour and all-day CLEs throughout the year. 46 sitting judges and justices attended our MLK Luncheon in January. KCBA also hosted 2 town halls with the new King County Presiding Judge Averil Rothrock.
The 2026 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Luncheon broke post-COVID attendance records with more than 730 judges, attorneys, and law students registered. 7 undergraduate students from Seattle University performed a beautiful rendition of Lift Every Voice & Sing at the Luncheon. 2 Seattle University law students interviewed 2 luminaries — Washington Attorney General Nick Brown and Keynote Speaker Rev. Cornell Brooks — at the pre-luncheon event hosted by Seattle U the night before the Luncheon. And, following the conclusion of the MLK Luncheon on January 16, keynote Rev. Brooks graciously stayed an additional 45 minutes to speak with attendees.
Our Foundation provided $150,000 this year to Seattle U and University of Washington law students through our Minority Law School Scholarships program. The Foundation also put on another successful Breakfast With Champions, hosting keynote Jan Crawford and serving a whopping 581 egg frittatas at the crack of dawn. Even more impressive, the Breakfast Planning Committee, with the assistance of new KCBA Development Director Mary Ann Lambert, raised more than $200,000 in sponsorships and an additional $140,000 from ticket sales and individual gifts. This goal-smashing number helps fund KCBA’s pro bono programs and its annual scholarships to law students.
This was KCBA’s third year helping local courthouses host Law Day events (generally in May) for middle and high school students. In preparation for these events, KCBA built 315 goodie bags for the kids to take home. These events are hosted with the goal of inspiring young people to join the legal profession as attorneys, paralegals, court reporters, bailiffs, or anything in between. KCBA recruited 17 volunteers to help with Law Day as well.
The heart of our member experience, our practice area sections, have been even more active this year, with 117 section-hosted one-hour CLEs, 18 section-hosted in-person networking opportunities (happy hours, lunches, and receptions), and 61 amazing volunteer leaders who help keep these sections running.
Our New Lawyers Division also kept things running with 6 in-person social events, 5 NLD CLEs (free to NLD members!), 3 networking events, and $4,010 raised at NLD Spring Soirée for KCBA’s Neighborhood Legal Clinic pro bono partner NWIRP. NLD is made up of all KCBA members who are within the first 10 years of law practice, and currently has 1,748 members — more than one third of KCBA’s entire membership!
KCBA’s Lawyer Referral Service, which is designed to help our members strengthen their law practice while also providing a needed service to the public, successfully matched 450 clients to member attorneys this year. LRS is an add-on to your KCBA membership, but once you’ve paid the $200 membership fee, you don’t pay any referral fees to KCBA unless you actually earn attorney fees from that client. Consider joining this service to build your own book of business. We have 24 panels with 139 subpanels among them — there’s a place for you in LRS!
