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. 

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.

Along with the medical profession, the legal profession has traditionally been associated with sleep deprivation. Late nights and early mornings were a rite of passage for new attorneys and a badge of honor for seasoned attorneys. While the pandemic ushered in more flexibility with scheduling and normalized work from home, remote work is not a panacea for the sleep deprived. Yes, valuable commuting time is saved but many attorneys report feeling pressure to be available during nontraditional work hours when working remotely.

Does AI get SAD?

In the Pacific Northwest we are no strangers to the mood-altering effects of The Big Dark. While some of us embrace the gray skies and rain, others hunker down with our books, coffee, and happy lights to chase the SAD (seasonal affective disorder) away. In what would seem to be more suited to a movie plot or an Onion article, in November people began to comment on tech & social media platforms that ChatGPT4 was getting lazy. Come again? Users reported that ChatGPT4 was refusing to do work and giving much less finished/ detailed responses than previously. Conspiracy theories abound. Is it possible that AI has become so self-aware that it too, falls prey to seasonal affective disorder? The timing is suspicious!

Each September, county law libraries across Washington publish their annual reports for the previous calendar year. It’s always interesting for me to look back to the previous year, especially since by the time the report is published much of what transpired seems very far back in the rearview mirror and we are on to other new and exciting projects. I thought I’d take you all with me on my trip down memory lane.

As a young person travelling in England, an iconic memory was hearing the sonorous English voice telling me to “Mind the Gap” in the tube station. A nice bit of nostalgia but it also puts me in mind of the gaps that we face when trying to provide truly effective service to those who are representing themselves in legal proceedings. While there are plenty of resources to help pro ses, there are just as many gaps that make it difficult for people to advocate for themselves.

A few months ago, I read an article about a Virginia case that made me do a double take — as in — wait, there’s no way this is an actual, real opinion. The case centered around a dispute over frozen embryos of a divorced couple.