It really is a humbling experience to explain all the reasons KCBA awarded Russ Aoki the Outstanding Lawyer Award for 2023. It is not just the breadth of his experience and commitment to the legal community that is so impressive, but also the fact Russ has been contributing in so many ways for so many years.

RESOLVED, That the American Bar Association urges the Supreme Court of the United States to adopt with dispatch a binding code of ethics for the justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, comparable to the code of ethics imposed upon other federal judges adopted by the Judicial Conference, the Code of Judicial Conduct for United States Judges.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall said “The legal system can force open doors and sometimes even knock down walls. But it cannot build bridges. That job belongs to you and me.” Judge Judith Ramseyer took on that job and took it seriously. During more than a decade on the bench, Judge Ramseyer did it all by opening doors to ensure access to justice, knocking down walls to reframe the judicial system’s approach to therapeutic courts, and most importantly, building bridges across groups. Judge Ramseyer is now the well-deserved recipient of KCBA’s Outstanding Judge of the Year award.

Each year, the New Lawyers Division has the opportunity to select an Outstanding New Lawyer to be honored. Looking at the list of past winners is nothing short of a “Who’s Who” in the King County Bar. This year, like every other, we had an incredible slate of nominees, each of whom deserves recognition in their own right. In that regard, we extend our sincere congratulations to Marcia Cho, Raymond Delos Reyes, Chris Ryder, Emma Healey, Diego Rondon Ichikawa, Jackson Marchant, and Aaron Paker on their nominations. While we can only have one winner, we are fortunate to be practicing in a jurisdiction where there are so many outstanding lawyers.

At the June awards ceremony, King County Bar Association recognized Michael Goldenkranz as the 2023 Pro Bono award winner for his outstanding record of service with the Neighborhood Legal Clinics program. As a volunteer attorney with NLC, Michael provides legal advice on a wide range of civil legal issues to clients who might not otherwise have access to an attorney. He has volunteered about once a week for nearly twenty years, amassing hundreds of hours of pro bono service work, and assisting several hundred, if not thousands, of clients and their families.

Thank you to everyone who joined us at the Washington Athletic Club on June 20th for the 2023 Annual Awards Reception.

It was an evening of great conversation and much celebration, as we honored the brightest and best of Seattle’s legal community.

Summer seems to be the season for restaurants to open up like flowers in Seattle. We got to two of them in their first few weeks open. And those two are just a few blocks apart on Capitol Hill.

The Much-Awaited Opening in the Old Canterbury’s Location

“There will never be enduring peace unless and until human beings come to accept a philosophy of life more adequate to the cosmic and psychological facts than the insane idolatries of nationalism and the advertising man’s apocalyptic faith in Progress towards a mechanized New Jerusalem.”

– Aldous Huxley, Introduction to Bhagavad-Gita translated by Swami Prabhavananda and Christopher Isherwood (London, 1944).

July 24th marked the end of an era, and the passing of the torch in the Department of Judicial Administration (DJA).

Being a Citizen Means Making Your Country Better