By Scott Collins
I’ll Eat Some Breakfast and then Change the World!
How times have changed! When I started as a volunteer attorney for the Neighborhood Legal Clinics 34 years ago, KCBA provided access to justice for our low-income neighbors by coordinating a network of pro bono legal services staffed by volunteers. While many of those same volunteer programs continue today, KCBA has dramatically evolved in its delivery of pro bono civil legal services to our community. That evolution has been more out of necessity than choice.
Volunteerism is down across our country and in our community. In January 2023, the U.S. Census Bureau and AmeriCorps jointly reported that a smaller percentage of Americans volunteer in their communities these days, and that those who do volunteer devote fewer hours to it. This decline has been decades in the making — in 2002, volunteers donated an average of 52 hours a year, but in pre-pandemic 2019, the number was half that, just 26 hours a year.
In February 2023, Seattle Times columnist Gene Balk, the “FYI Guy,” reported that data from the market-research firm Nielsen show declining volunteerism in King County over the past two years. In each of the three years before the pandemic, more than 30% of adults in King County — nearly one million people — volunteered in some way. Not surprisingly, that percentage dropped during the pandemic — in the 2020-21 period, only 26% of adults volunteered. In the following annual period, when pandemic restrictions were lifted and volunteerism was expected to return to near pre-pandemic levels, the numbers surprisingly declined further. According to the latest Nielsen data, just 22% of adults in King County, or around 700,000 people, volunteered from July 2021 to July 2022. That is a staggering decline — in just two years, King County lost nearly 300,000 volunteers!
KCBA has felt the effect of declining volunteerism at a time when the legal needs of our low-income neighbors are higher than ever. In response, KCBA has pivoted to decrease reliance on volunteers by increasing its professional staff to provide civil legal services directly to clients. In the past two years, KCBA has almost doubled the size of its staff, and many of those added are attorneys delivering civil legal services directly to low-income individuals. KCBA now employs 38 staff attorneys, essentially making it a mid-sized law firm (in addition to everything else KCBA does for our bar). Even with all those staff attorneys working in conjunction with many private attorneys who continue to volunteer, the unmet need for civil legal services in King County outpaces the increased effort.
I hope this makes you ask, “What can I do to help?” Three years ago, the answer was for you to call KCBA and volunteer your time and talents. There are easy volunteer opportunities that range from two hours of no-strings-attached client consultation sessions at a Neighborhood Legal Clinic once every six weeks, to spending just a few hours over the course of several months providing form-driven aid to vacate someone’s public record of a criminal conviction so they can land a job or an apartment, to representing a domestic violence survivor in obtaining a protection order and ending the abusive relationship for the survivor and children at risk.
This year, that question of “what can I do to help?” has an important second answer. KCBA continues to need volunteer attorney time and talents. But the harsh reality is that the King County Bar Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization, also needs your charitable contribution to fuel KCBA’s increased staffing delivering direct civil legal services. This is where the Breakfast with Champions comes in.
“The Breakfast” is the Foundation’s main fundraising event of the year, and we need your support this year more than ever. The Foundation’s mission is twofold — we provide funding for KCBA’s pro bono legal programs and we fund scholarships for law students of color at the two local law schools. Improving access to justice and diversity across our county bar has never been more important. Join us at the Breakfast on May 9 at 7:30 a.m. at The Westin Seattle.
Lest you think the Breakfast is only about fundraising, the event is also one of the marquee social events for our local bar. We are still coming back together after the pandemic, and the Breakfast will play as important a role in “friend-raising” and networking as it will in fundraising. It will bring our bar and bench in King County together over breakfast, and you will see friends and colleagues whom you have not seen in three years.
Doug Baldwin will deliver the Breakfast’s keynote address. Known for his prowess on the football field and Super Bowl championship (and touchdown!) with the Seahawks, Mr. Baldwin has leveraged his Stanford University education, life experiences, and high community profile into becoming a change agent for social and economic justice here in King County. Breakfast attendees will also learn about KCBA’s Records Project, which gives clients a fresh start in moving forward with employment and housing opportunities by vacating eligible convictions on their record. You will also hear from a scholarship recipient about the beneficial impact KCBA’s scholarship has had on his ability to attend and prosper at law school.
The Breakfast will be successful with the support of everyone across our King County Bar. Law firms, locally based corporations and their general counsel offices, other law offices, and legal industry vendors have already stepped up to sponsor the Breakfast. Attorneys can support the Breakfast as table captains, organizing a table of ten colleagues and friends who also care about access to justice and promoting diversity. And of course, you alone can provide key support just by buying a ticket and attending the Breakfast. Join us, and while you’re there, please support KCBA with a generous contribution.
As this year’s Foundation President, and as a long-time Neighborhood Legal Clinics volunteer, I have seen the tangible benefits the Breakfast brings to the lives of our low-income neighbors. I thank our supporters for enabling the Foundation to be its own change agent in the lives of those who need, but can’t afford, quality civil legal services, and in those who receive scholarships that open doors to the legal profession that may otherwise be closed. By eating some breakfast, you really can change the world . . . for many right here in King County.
See you at the Breakfast on May 9!
