The other day an attorney patron came in looking for sample language for a very specific type of employment agreement. Using the form sets in our collection we were able to quickly find sample clauses for that particular situation.

The law is a tradition-bound endeavor. Judicial decisions are constrained by long-established precedent (well, at least they used to be) as are the workings of the court. An attorney visiting the King County Law Library when it was first established in 1919 would not have felt too out of place in the law library (or courthouse) of 2019. Then came the pandemic [cue the sound of a record scratch] and we were all thrust into the future. Unlike public libraries, who had embraced eBook collections years ago, public law libraries were still tied to print collections. But not for lack of trying. For years I, and other law librarians, lobbied legal publishers to allow our patrons to check out eBooks and were always met with a resounding no. With the onset of the pandemic, Lexis quickly pivoted and created remote eBook access for public law library patrons. It was a game changer for KCLL and we proceeded to change the composition of our collection from almost exclusively print to primarily digital.

As anyone who has ever worked in a library knows, there will always be that person who, upon finding out that one works in a library, comments, “That must be so great, I’d love to just sit around and read all day. “Ummm…. yeah… not in any public law library that I know …. but sure, most of us give a polite nod and refrain from an overly sarcastic eyeroll. That said, libraries do attract people who love books and yes, we do spend a lot of our free time reading them. In this month’s column you can get a bird’s eye view into what the law library and foundation staff are currently reading.

As anyone who has ever worked in a library knows, there will always be that person who, upon finding out that one works in a library, comments, “That must be so great, I’d love to just sit around and read all day. “Ummm…. yeah… not in any public law library that I know …. but sure, most of us give a polite nod and refrain from an overly sarcastic eyeroll. That said, libraries do attract people who love books and yes, we do spend a lot of our free time reading them. In this month’s column you can get a bird’s eye view into what the law library and foundation staff are currently reading.

Imagine having a reliable, low cost, on-demand associate focused squarely on helping you with your legal practice. As a subscriber to the King County Law Library, you essentially have your very own legal associate at the touch of your phone or computer. Need a case from Westlaw, a section from a WSBA Deskbook or an annotated RCW section? We can quickly provide what you need. What about jury verdicts or Keyciting? We’ve got you covered. Do you have a thorny legal issue and are out of ideas? We can make recommendations from our wide array of print and digital resources and suggest customized searches.

In a sprawling wooded grove, nestled between Discovery Park and Magnolia is the Fort Lawton Post Cemetery. Founded in 1909, the cemetery was an addition to Fort Lawton itself, an artillery center and defense base intended to defend Seattle and the Puget Sound coast from naval attack. Beyond its rows of orderly white headstones, a stately grave stands alone at the perimeter of the cemetery, a wide white pillar surrounded by metal fencing. It reads, Sold. Ital. Olivotto. The solitary grave is one of the only remnants of the largest court martial in United States history, the final resting place of Guglielmo Olivotto, an Italian prisoner of war lynched during a riot that occurred at the Fort Lawton Barracks in the summer of 1944. The murder of Olivotto resulted in the trial of 43 Black soldiers stationed at the fort, and the conviction of 28 of them, a story that took news cycles by storm as hearsay accounts of what happened that fateful night spread throughout Seattle and nationwide.1 A white man had been lynched, and Americans wanted answers. The violent altercation that occurred at Fort Lawton between Black Soldiers, white Military police, and Italian prisoners of war was the simultaneous product of racial segregation and nationalist fervor, exemplifying the larger societal belief that Black Americans were subordinate to even their war time enemies.

Just about a year ago, in news that made me very sad at the time, Thomson Reuters acquired the spunky, upstart legal research company Casetext. I have been a big fan of Casetext since their inception. 

Just about a year ago, in news that made me very sad at the time, Thomson Reuters acquired the spunky, upstart legal research company Casetext. I have been a big fan of Casetext since their inception. 

Like nearly everyone, we at King County Law Library found ourselves particularly challenged by the COVID shutdown. A huge percentage of the legal research materials we had were literally meant to be used hands-on. Even most of the electronic subscriptions we maintained were still set up to be used from one of the library’s in-house computers.

What felt like just yesterday, the King County Law Library announced the “arrival” of our new baby, the King County Law Library Foundation, in these very pages.