Colleagues, especially those suffering losses in the Court of Appeals or Superior Court, frequently ask if it’s harder than it used to be to get a case heard in the Washington Supreme Court. The short answer is not really — the percentage of accepted cases is low but remains on par with its historic norm.1 But the perception that the Court is hearing fewer cases is accurate. Our state Supreme Court simply does not decide as many cases as it used to.

Quinn v. State, No. 100769-8 (Mar. 24, 2023). Washington’s highest court recently addressed whether the newly-enacted capital gains tax presents an unlawful tax on income. The Court held the tax to be a permissible excise because it will be levied on the sale or exchange of capital assets, not on capital assets or gains themselves. Before you complain the ruling is political, not based in law, dictionary definitions, or common sense, and shows the dangers attendant to the judicial branch’s trespassing clumsily into the political field, consider: unlike recent mystifying decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court, the majority here simply confirmed the legislative branch’s power to make findings, enact legislation, and tax residents.

May is a busy month. We hope to see many of you at the Breakfast with Champions event on May 9th hosted by the King County Bar Foundation. Our KCBF President Scott Collins wrote about it so eloquently last month; if you haven’t read his column, please do. He covers in great detail why the event is important to our legal community. It will be a fantastic breakfast with philanthropist and former Seattle Seahawk Doug Baldwin. The event is almost sold out, so I hope you were able to snag your ticket!

It was just over three years ago that the COVID19 Pandemic became part of our lives and everyone who could be was sent home to work remotely. At first, we grappled with how to change the way we do the work in order to continue providing programming to our members (also working remotely). Lucky for us, we were already streaming our Section meetings and CLE offerings so all it took was a period of time to adjust our systems and protocols to be able to provide remote access for those working from home. Fast forward three years — almost all of our events including Section and Committee meetings, CLE offerings, New Lawyer Division meetings and events are available either totally remote or in a hybrid format.

That’s a wrap folks! Since no petition was filed to challenge the slate of board candidates, please welcome your official 2023–2024 Board of Trustees: President Karen Orehoski, First Vice President Erin Overbey, Second Vice President Sidney Tribe, Secretary Caleb O. Bonm and Trustees Amit D. Ranade, Joanna Boisen, Shashi Vijay, and Emily Gause. They will join Treasurer Theresa H. Wang and Trustees, Paul Crisalli, William L. Dixon, Robert Flennaugh II, Cynthia B. Jones, Dylan Kilpatric, Michelle Pham, Chalia Stallings-
Ala’ilima, and Ian Warner.

Halfway through his thirties, Adam Boyd has racked up a surprisingly extensive list of professional accomplishments. He has sailed out of the trenches of public defense work in Massachusetts into a crim-imm focused solo practice in Tacoma and straight on to the top of the career ladder as managing partner at Gibbs Houston Pauw, one of the more renowned immigration law firms in Seattle.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.

Charles Dickens’s words ring true today as I contemplate the health and well-being of our community, particularly in regard to record numbers who struggle with the disease of addiction. And while it can feel like the winter of despair, one sign of hope can be found in the good work of our therapeutic courts here in King County Superior Court.

Defense frustration and disbelief have become the staple of post-pandemic mock trials, focus groups, and trial conclusions. Damages seem to be going up and jurors seem to hate large corporations, often ignoring or explaining away important facts which might help the corporate defendant in a case. These feelings are not unwarranted. After all, a November 2022 Pew Poll found that distrust of large corporations is one of the few things voters on both sides of the aisle seem to agree on. Conservative jurors used to be reliably pro-business and anti-lawsuit (or at least anti-nuclear verdict), but that is no longer the case, which may explain the inflationary trend in damage awards.

As many of you know, Reptile Theory, as a litigation strategy, slithered into existence in 2009, made popular by David Ball and Don Keenan in their book, Reptile, The 2009 Manual Of The Plaintiff’s Revolution. Since then, thousands of lawyers, both plaintiff and defense, have employed the tactics promoted by this book.

I recently did a presentation for the KCBA Solo and Small Firm section on time management. And during that presentation, I touched briefly on boundaries. There were quite a few comments that came in during that portion of my presentation, as well as some “a-ha” moments, so I thought those who missed the presentation might be interested in reading this article.