KCBA and the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Luncheon Committee are excited to announce this year’s luncheon will be held on Friday, January 12, 2024, from 12:00 p.m. to 1:15 p.m., at the Washington State Convention Center. Please join us in celebrating Dr. King and his legacy.

KCBA Classifieds-December 2023

By the time you see it, it might be too late. Set aside your feelings about Donald Trump and take yourself back to his run-up to victory in the 2016 Presidential election. What was his appeal to millions of Americans? Why did so many people want what he offered? The answers are complex and multiple, but among them is a key to understanding how jurors feel today about trial advocacy and persuasion tactics of yesterday. Mr. Trump did the opposite of what so many people had tired of and no longer wanted. Many of his independent or moderate supporters described how much they liked that he spoke and sounded unlike the other candidates and “spoke his mind.” People were tired of the prepared lines and everything else that comes with politician-speak and Donald Trump offered a refreshing alternative.

You asked for it—nay, you demanded it—and now the Supremes have drafted a “code of ethics.”  Of course, it is not binding, fails to identify any enforcement agent or mechanism, and makes a mockery of KCBA’s and ABA’s resolutions to impose a binding code of conduct on our cagey, robed oracles.  This month, the Bar Bulletin graciously provides members with their own annotated copy.

In re Pers. Restraint of Knight, No. 101068-1 (Nov. 9, 2023). At issue: whether separate convictions for felony murder and first-degree robbery violate the state or federal constitution when evidence was insufficient to justify a conviction for the underlying felony. Washington’s Supremes held they do and remanded for resentencing.

The past waits as a mirror which reveals the present.  One need only look.  Despite reliable data suggesting an impending attack in the mid-Pacific in December 1941, the U.S. Government was caught seemingly unprepared.  Intelligence failure or failure to act?  And what can those failures teach us about geo-political gamesmanship today?

I’ll be the first to admit when I hear about the latest, greatest “advancement” in legal technology, I usually greet it with an eyeroll. Most of the time these legal tech wonders fizzle out and are forgotten in the time it takes to blow all that angel investor funding. ChatGPT however, shows no sign of abating, so I guess it’s time for all of us to get up to speed. I recently attended a fascinating CLE on ChatGPT presented by LeighAnne Thompson, Reference Librarian and Adjunct Professor at Seattle University School of Law and Jonathan Franklin, Digital Innovation Librarian at University of Washington School of Law. I asked LeighAnne and Jonathan to help us understand some of the basics of ChatGPT for law practice.

In cities as diverse as Seattle, Spokane, Portland and even Austin, Texas, retail rents and those for manufacturing and warehouse spaces have increased by double digit percentages over the last year alone. As such costs rise, neighborhoods which have long provided the kind of favorable environments in which entrepreneurs thrive are becoming increasingly inhospitable to them. Independent businesses which serve the everyday needs of their communities are being forced out and replaced by national chains that can negotiate better rents or can afford to subsidize a high-visibility location.

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.

One of our favorite contributors returns to provide clarity regarding new student loan repayment programs.  If you are one of 40 million Americans whose student loan payments resumed recently, you won’t want to miss this article.