WyLD
FEBRUARY 2011
Turning a Solo Practice into a
Partnership (Wink, Wink)
Romance in law school and the legal profession
by Randy Trick
came to law school
single and ready to
be surrounded by
smart,
ambitious,
and single women.
But I soon realized
that about half of the female
students were married, engaged, or
had serious boyfriends. I suppose that if
you have your act together enough to get
into law school, you probably have your act
together enough to find a romantic partner.
“Law students are attractive on several
levels: strong, career-driven, intellectual,
similar [future] income,” says Ryan Blumberg, a first-year student at Seattle University School of Law. “They can commit to
something. They aren’t flaky. Whether here,
in law school, or as a lawyer, those are the
[attractive] traits that are part of dating.”
It seems natural for lawyers and law
students to be drawn to each other. We
speak a common language. We value truth
and justice. We are educated to a point
where we are valued basically for our
brains and the thoughts contained therein.
We are strong. We are powerful. And we
are always right, especially when there
are different kinds of being right. We are
trained to evaluate any fact or feeling from
each possible angle, parse it, peruse, and
reach conclusions about it. Yet that is precisely how to kill a relationship, or stifle
one from the beginning.
Those legal practitioners fortunate
enough to have successfully negotiated
dating and relationships — and ultimately
marriage — show the rest of us it is possible
for driven, smart people to find “true love.”
But such an accomplishment requires pa-
I
tience, humility, and acceptance that someone else may be the smartest person in the
room — three traits that are often hard to
come by in those who practice law.
“The profession attracts Type-A personalities,” says Jenny Faubion, a litigation
associate at Ashbaugh Beal LLP in Seattle.
“For a lawyer-lawyer relationship to work,
both partners have to be comfortable not
talking all the time, and being okay with not
being right, even when they know they are.”
Faubion graduated from the University of Washington School of Law in
2007. She began dating Amit Ranade
from the UW Law Class of 2003 when she
was a third-year law student. Both served
as UW student regent. In fact, when she
was a UW undergraduate student active in
student government, Fabian helped pass a
resolution censuring Ranade for a vote he
cast as the independent student regent in
favor of an energy surcharge. That’s how
she first knew of Ranade.
A few years later, when Ranade vol1
Washington State Bar Association
YOUNG LAWYERS DIVISION
Volume 25 • Issue 1
In This Issue
1
Romance in Law School and the
Legal Profession
by Randy Trick
4
Editor’s Column
by Allison Peryea
5
President’s Column
by Kari Petrasek
6
Member Spotlight:
Chris Kringel
7
Effective Pre-trial Motions:
Persuading the Judge
by Maureen Howard
8
Communicating Between
Generations
by Lisa Voso
10
Estate Planning for Younger
Clients
by Stacey L. Romberg
12
Laptop Sherlock
by Linda Montgomery and Aimee
Rachunok
14
Counsel over Cocktails?
by Trent M. Latta
15
Is Superior Court Always…
Superior?
by Allison Moon
16
How to Make Your Colleagues
Fall for You (Platonically
Speaking) at the Office
by Peter Roberts
17
More Young Lawyers Turning to
Pro Bono
by Mercedes Riggs
18
Managing Client Funds with an
IOLTA
by Lainie Patterson
19
Foreign Concept:
Exploring Working Abroad
by Arundel Pritchett
20
Santa Fe Hosts ABA YLD
Fall Conference
by Julia A. Bahner
21
Legal Fiction: The Social Network
Fails Civ Pro Exam
by Eric Chavez
unteered to judge a mock trial event at the
UW, he officially met Faubion. According to
Faubion, she knew by the end of the competition he would be asking her out, despite
her earlier efforts to censure him.
Their tale certainly makes for an interesting how-we-met story. Now married,
their relationship works, they say, because
it is based on more than just their shared
profession. “Being lawyers is such a small
part of who we are,” Ranade says. “It’s the
breadth of the experiences that we share.
Of the day, maybe half an hour of it we talk
about the law.”
But Ranade, a litigator at Hillis Clark
Martin & Peterson P.S., and Faubion say if
they did not love their jobs, their relationship would likely suffer some of the same
typical stresses that come from high-pressure, time-intensive careers.
“One thing about lawyer couples: you
have to like what you do,” Ranade says. “It’s
going to come up a lot, and if you don’t like
what you do, it’s going to be something you
don’t want to talk about.”
Because they both enjoy their jobs, it
makes sacrificing their time easier. “The
workload is a stress on some people’s relationships,” Ranade says. “I think it is less
stress because when I am working through
the weekend, she understands….”
“…Because soon it will be my turn,”
says Faubian, completing his thought. “I
married someone who is a lawyer. I think
my successes and losses are felt better by
him, and vice versa, than if I were married
to a non-lawyer. When he wins a big case, I
know exactly how hard he worked for it.”
For Josh Gaul and Holly Vance, both
members of the UW Law Class of 2005,
working together at K&L Gates LLP
makes their marriage much easier.
“It’s advantageous to us,” says Gaul.
“Once you start practicing you don’t have a
lot of time together. But we work together,
drive to work together, take our daughter to
Dating tips for attorneys — attempt at your own risk
• Don’t be scared of the Internet. Americans spent an estimated $900 million in 2010 on memberships to online-dating sites, and dating site Match.com
proudly claims that one in five relationships start online. Online dating is popular
because it works. But as you create your online profile, remember that others
in your firm, or your office, are likely to see it, either on purpose or by accident.
• Keep an eye out at networking events. You had to meet people to get your
job. You had to impress people and be charming. Gosh, that kind of sounds
like dating. What is networking other than dating without the romantic subtext?
The magic words are: “Would you like to get a drink after this?”
• Get out of the office. Engage in a hobby that involves collaboration or has
a community of enthusiasts. Seattle Works, for example, features short-term
volunteer projects for busy professionals (www.seattleworks.org). Not only will
you be able to meet people who are not attorneys, but they may well be impressed that you give time for service work despite a lawyer’s busy schedule.
• Don’t confuse confidence with arrogance. A law degree can rightfully give
us confidence. In men, confidence is sexy. But a first or second date does not
need to become a bragging session about money or trial work. For women,
confidence is sexy too, but not all men are mature enough to handle it. One
woman suggested to her fellow females in the legal profession to simply say
that you work at a law firm when first introducing yourself to a dating prospect.
Seeing what he asks next, or whether he cares to ask what you do at the firm,
may be a good indication of how he may handle your confidence.
• Come in from work before going out. After a long day at work, we may not
look our best and may need to put some space between brief-writing time and
social time. Hit the gym first, watch something online that makes you laugh, or
listen to some pump-up music as you primp for a date.
• Don’t confuse business with pleasure. The Rules of Professional Conduct
prohibit certain kinds of conduct with clients, and trying to be impressive with
tales of intrigue spun about your exciting job representing or prosecuting bad
guys may breach the duties of client confidentiality.
2
daycare together, and come home together.”
Working together makes it easier to
fall into the trap of blurring work-personal
life boundaries and bringing work and its
stresses home, they say, but the firm helps
its attorneys avoid that trap.
And attorney spouses can understand
the complexities of a lawyer’s busy life. “Realize that this is a profession, not just a job,”
Gaul says. “Finding someone who understands that is so important.”
Just as important is finding someone
who understands what makes a good lawyer,
but also when those skills need to be turned
off. “They should understand that arguing is
your job, and that’s fine, but you can’t act that
way when you’re at home,” Vance says.
While the practice of law is timeconsuming, learning to be a lawyer can
similarly leave little time for much else
— let alone anyone else. But dating in
law school can be easier than as a professional. Single students know they are
surrounded by people who share at least
one thing in common with them.
“Supposedly dating someone is like
taking on another five-credit course,” says
Arcadia Corbett, a second-year law student
at Seattle University. “Even if that’s not
exactly true, I think there is some truth to
that. You have to make time.”
But unlike dating an attorney at a
different firm, or one you’re only likely to
bump into at a courthouse, a law school
combines constant proximity with competition and a shared feeling of struggle and
endurance. And there is never enough time.
“If you’re seeing somebody and they do
not go to law school, it is hard to say ‘I need
to spend the next X hours studying,’ or ‘I can’t
see you tonight because I have to study,’” says
Marcus Cannon, also a Seattle University
second-year law student. “When the person
you’re dating is a law student, you don’t really
have a chance to spend a lot of quality time
together. I need time to myself, to play video
games and relax, and I want to have quality
time, but all my time is taken already.”
Cannon and Roberta “Bobby” Chien
— or “Bobcus,” as they came to be known
— met in summer 2009 during a summer
criminal law class for 1Ls. They socialized
with classmates, and one evening Cannon
sneaked a kiss when a friend was taking
their photograph by turning his face toward Chien’s right before the flash fired.
Since then, Bobcus has been on-again and
off-again three times.
“We have, like, four different anniversaries,” Chien says.
As a result of their romantic link, Bobcus became the Tomkat or Brangelina of
the Seattle University Law first-year class
last year. Facebook became their US Weekly
or “Entertainment Tonight,” and cellphone
cameras at bars were their paparazzi. “I
didn’t realize how big a deal our relationship was,” Chien says.
The Bobcus experience influenced
other Seattle University Law couples.
“When I was thinking about whether
to get in a relationship, I decided absolutely
not, not with Bobby and Marcus and all
the drama and people talking about that,”
says Lindsey Millar, also a second-year law
student at Seattle University.
Yet, Millar and Blumberg found themselves dating, even though both had been
told — and, at one time, each believed
— that dating other students is a mistake,
especially dating within your year, and especially within your section.
“When Lindsey and I started dating,
we sort of clicked, and it was an opportuTop Ten Lawyer Pick-up Lines
10) Interested in a de novo review?
9) There’s always room on my docket
for someone with motions like yours.
8) You know what my favorite word
is? Prosecutrix.
7) When I first saw you, I knew there
was no way you could wrongfully
obtain or exert unauthorized control
over my heart with the intent of permanently depriving me of the benefits thereof.
6) You say “litigious” like it’s a bad
thing. (See also, “No, I’m not one of
those lawyers.”)
5) What you call a one-night stand, I
call pro hac vice.
4) Saint Peter must surely be violating 29 CFR 1926.501 concerning minimum guardrail standards, because
you clearly fell from heaven.
3) Your skirt is like my last brief:
long enough to cover the subject,
but short enough to keep things interesting.
2) I’d say that, given our minimum
contacts, it would be a reasonable
expectation to be hailed into one of
our jurisdictions by the end of the
evening.
1) I’d like to move for a continuance of
this evening, perhaps to chambers?
nity seized,” says Blumberg. “Other things
about law school did not turn out as we
were told they would.”
The pair split later that semester. Both
say that the fact they were law students did
not factor into the relationship’s end; the
two just had different personalities.
But while dating someone you see
every day anyway makes spending times
together easier, the constant proximity
compounds the delicateness of a breakup.
“Breaking up with him was a big deal because I knew I was going to have to see him
in every class,” Millar says. “That’s something to think about if things go wrong.”
They said their experience taught them
at least one way to handle future relationships
in a setting like law school: “There’s going to
be gossip after a breakup, and responding to it
only gets worse,” Blumberg says.
Millar agrees. “Law school is very
unique with regard to relationship drama
because it’s so tiny,” she says. “I think even
more so at a firm. To start dating someone
at a firm is very dangerous.”
Brooke Coleman, an assistant professor of law at Seattle University, taught civil
procedure to Blumberg and Millar while
they dated and broke up. Coleman says
that, just as students rarely picture professors leading lives outside of academia, as a
professor she recognizes that her students
have personal lives — but has no concept
of what those lives entail. She did not
know about Blumberg and Millar’s relationship, for example.
But learning that her students are
dating and forming relationships is not a
surprise to her. Coleman and her husband,
Mark Liffmann, are one of ten or so couples from the Harvard Law School Class
of 1999 who married. They noticed each
other their first semester. By November he
asked her out, and the couple kept a low
profile for the rest of their first year.
“If you have that character trait of an
analytical mind, I could see how you could
be attracted to that, but I also see how
you would want to get a break from that,”
Coleman says.
Their relationship worked in law
school, Coleman explains, because being
in the same section of 130 students let
them spend a lot of time together. She says
their personalities also strongly complement each other. “He’s a really tranquil
and confident person,” she says, which
made the pressures of law school easier to
endure together.
But once practicing, the proximity did
3
not have the same productive effect. “In
practice, it was boring, because we knew the
same people and did the same stuff,” Coleman says. “I loved it when he left law and
went into business.”
Unlike Vance and Gaul, or Ranade
and Faubion, Coleman and Liffmann
faced and navigated changes in profession.
Coleman sought academia and Liffmann
went into business. They moved across the
country. She says that making the transitions work well required a lot of communication. “When you’re two professionals,
you have two careers to plan around. It
needs to be talked about early and often,”
Coleman advises.
Notably, law students discussing relationships seem to focus on making time,
proximity, and having someone who can
relate to the ordeal of law school as factors
in successful and failed relationships. Yet,
happily coupled attorneys suggest the key
factor is just meeting someone with whom
one is compatible. Dating is hard enough;
doing so as an attorney is harder.
“I know a good friend of mine who is
single, and it’s exhausting [for him],” says
Faubion. “The women who are after him
are after him for the status, for the lawyer,
not for him. As a female attorney it was difficult to date men who were not confident
because they seemed threatened.”
To date successfully as a lawyer,
equip yourself with a life outside the law.
While the practice of law is a profession,
rather than a job, and can be consuming,
it should not be defining, Ranade says.
Having something important in your life
other than the law provides balance. Also
useful is having a short speech — an elevator spiel — prepared to explain to nonlawyers so they know what your job entails
and why you do it.
Ranade and Faubion have some other
dating advice for lawyers and law students:
“Count to ten before you speak; have
no more than two drinks on a date,” Faubion advises. “Be open; lawyers can be really
judgmental. Know when to stop talking …”
“That is what the counting to ten is
for,” Ranade cuts in. ◊
Randy Trick is a second-year student at Seattle University School of Law. He knows he
painted this article with broad brushstrokes
and leans heavily on stereotypes. If you want
to argue with him about anything in this
article, how about doing so over dinner and
drinks? He may be reached at trickr@seattleu.
edu. He is single and rides a motorcycle!
Editor’s Column
Where’s the Love?
by Allison Peryea
T
he month of February, and the Hallmark people, provide us with a date
— the 14th — to celebrate romantic
love. We do not, however, get a specific day to toast our love for our profession.
And — let’s be honest — if such a day
existed, a lot of us would probably want
to punch it in the face. According to some
scientific research I gathered (i.e., what a
fellow UW Law grad told me at a bar),
there are a lot of young attorneys out there
who would rather floss with barbed wire
than go to work in the morning. There are
also a lot of us (for example, the hilarious subject of this issue’s WYLD Member Spotlight, found on page 6) who are
openly questioning whether having a law
license is all that it’s cut out to be, given
the debt load that follows law school and
the stingy job market.
Young lawyers seem to approach
their early careers the same way some
people look ahead to Valentine’s Day.
Some do flips of joy in anticipation, eager
for the opportunity to lavish their significant others with gifts of overpriced dinners out, carnation bouquets, and stuffed
monkeys with semi-creepy slogans like
“Prisoner of Love” on their little monkey T-shirts. Others just go through the
motions, lamenting all the while that the
event was conjured up to line the pockets
of the greeting-card and chocolate-box
bigwigs. Still others dread the date like
a visit from the Adult-Onset Acne Fairy.
Similarly, less-experienced attorneys
tend to rave about, put up with, or loathe
their jobs — and that’s not even including the unemployed lawyers who simply
wish they had a job to show off, complain
about, or endure.
I have had both positive and negative
experiences in the Valentine’s Day department (think weekend in the San Juan Islands versus receiving a calendar that was
already a month-and-a-half expired, clearly
excavated from the Walgreens clearance
bin). And, despite several high points, my
experience as an attorney has not been all
chocolate and roses. Indeed, if the practice of law was a boyfriend, I would have
dumped it a long time ago. Nothing and no
one has ever made me stay up more nights
with worry, feel more suspicious and paranoid, or caused me to crave the company of
alcohol to the same extent.
But — despite a list of negatives in
our relationship — I have never kicked
it to the curb (a guy who marched me
through an even remotely similar parade
of horribles would never fare so well). The
urge to flee the scene comes up at times
when I am dealing with an opposing party
who seems to be more interested in driving me crazy than resolving the issues. Or
when I have bad news to tell a client…
or when a client is bad news. Or when it
starts to seem like I am spending more
time documenting my billable time than
actually billing time.
I have stuck with the practice of law
because it has stuck with me: showing me
that I can survive — and sometimes even
excel — in circumstances that have threatened to overwhelm me. Very recently, for
example, my arbitration-preparation efforts (which included daunting tasks such
as drafting a 54-page brief with 90 exhibits and showing up to work on time for a
whole week) were rewarded with a decision
that provided my clients with every penny
they requested. It was a great milestone in
the sanity-challenging case, which was like
having to carry around an ugly, squalling
baby for two months without ever being
able to put it down. In fact, it seems that
whenever I am leaning toward hanging up
my court-appropriate, low-heeled pumps, I
get a reminder of why this profession can
be so fantastic. It can take the form of a
decent settlement for a deserving client, or
a well-received argument before a judge, or
the discovery of a perfectly on-point case to
dismantle an opponent’s claim. Or a paycheck that exists.
I know I am not the only young attorney who does not always love the practice of law. It can be tedious, and stressful,
and it can be really, really hard. Sometimes
I feel like I am paid to wallow in confusion. But I think the best way to approach
our careers — and, indeed, Valentine’s
Day, and love in general — is to accept
that there are going to be both highs and
lows, and times when it seems like we are
just going through the motions. And during the low points, we can always take the
edge off with a bottle of white wine and
the company of a special someone. I know
I am much happier when I have a better
4
half to regale with thrilling tales about contract
interpretation and discovery disputes. (I also
know that dating an attorney has enriched
the lives of all of my past and present boyfriends, who my dad collectively refers to
as “Poor Chump.”) If you are in the market for a significant other, please refer to
Randy Trick’s dating tips on this issue’s
cover page, or ask Randy out.
I will close with a quick update about
the (non-feline) love of my life — yep, De
Novo. In the December issue we rolled out
our newest regular feature, the WYLD
Member Spotlight, in which we profile
randomly selected members of the WYLD.
This feature is my new Favorite Thing (my
old Favorite Thing was accidentally killing houseplants): it really showcases the
diverse experiences and personalities of
Washington’s newer lawyers. I have been
especially intrigued by the subjects’ forthright descriptions of how the economic
climate has affected them, and the exotic
pets they would prefer. Also in December,
we introduced the ability to click on links
to individual stories on De Novo’s homepage (www.wsba.org/media/publications/
denovo) instead of having to scroll down
the PDF. This may sound like a mundane
accomplishment for the high-tech crowd,
but for De Novo, this is a technological
breakthrough of epic proportions. And beginning with this issue, website addresses
included in the PDF are clickable, allowing
readers to go directly to external webpages
from De Novo.
We have many other plans in the
works to make De Novo even better (I know
what you’re thinking: is that even possible?). These include — but are certainly
not limited to — an upcoming theme issue
focusing on WYLD’s 25th anniversary, and
additional tweaks to the homepage that I
don’t yet understand. Stay tuned. ◊
XOXO,
Allison
Allison Peryea is an associate with Leahy
McLean Fjelstad, located in Kirkland, which
provides general counsel to community associations. She can be reached at allison.peryea@
leahyps.com.
President’s Column
Decent Exposure
by Kari Petrasek
Y
ou have passed the bar exam, and a longer article will not be so difficult.
now you need a job. Or perhaps you There are many legal publications that
have a job but would like to be no- accept articles: your local bar publication;
ticed more. What can you do without this publication, De Novo; the WSBA Bar
being obnoxious? There are many ways News; and national publications such as
you can increase your presence
in the legal community; however,
which way is best for you?
Probably the easiest way to
become noticed is by attending local and state bar association events.
In Snohomish County, where I
practice, our county bar association
hosts at least one bench/bar mixer
each year. Members of the county
bar and the county judges and commissioners are invited to attend. It
is a free event and a great way to
get to know other attorneys in the
area, as well as the judges you will
someday — if you do not already —
appear in front of, and a great way to attract those produced by the American Bar Aspotential referrals.
sociation. In particular, De Novo always
In addition, the WYLD tries to have welcomes material from young lawyers.
at least one networking social each month, You are always invited to submit articles
with other events throughout the year, of personal interest to you that you think
such as outings to Seahawks, Mariners, or other people would enjoy reading. To subSounders games combined with a post- mit an article to De Novo, you can e-mail
game social. This WYLD year, socials editor Allison Peryea at allison.peryea@
across the entire
leahyps.com.
state are scheduled There are many
For those of you who
to be co-hosted by a
want to conquer stage fright,
ways a person
WSBA section and
consider volunteering your
the WYLD. Other can increase her
time for speaking engagelocal bar associations presence in the
ments. The most popular
do their own net- legal community;
way to find an audience is
working events; keep
which way is best to be a presenter for a CLE.
your eyes and ears
When local bar associations
open for events in for you? Probably
put together a CLE for their
your area. If you at- the easiest way to members, they often look
tend social events on become noticed
to their members to speak.
a fairly regular basis,
This relates back to the first
is by attending
you will start to get
way to get noticed menlocal and state bar tioned above — networking.
noticed.
For those who association events. It also does not hurt to get to
enjoy writing, that,
know the executive director
too, is a great way for people to start no- or president of your local bar association.
ticing you. If you have never submitted an Let him or her know who you are, that
article to a legal publication before, the you are open to speaking engagements,
thought of doing so can be scary. How- and what types of topics you would like to
ever, if you start small, eventually writing address during such engagements. If you
5
are interested in presenting at a WSBA
CLE, get involved in a WSBA section
that interests you, and network. If you get
to know people and demonstrate knowledge in a particular area and an interest
in presenting on that topic, people
will think of you when a possible
CLE speaking opportunity arises.
Other tips to help you get noticed
without
embarrassing
yourself: be able to connect with
people who you otherwise may be
scared to talk to. Remember that
not all things that are “memorable” leave a good impression.
Particularly in smaller legal communities outside of King County,
this is very true. If you act in an
unprofessional manner at an event
or in the courtroom, your actions
could become “memorable” — but
not for the right reason. It is nearly impossible to try and undo what has already
transpired. To avoid damaging your reputation, try to visualize what you want or
anticipate happening ahead of time, so
that when the event or hearing actually
takes place, you are prepared. It is always
good to stand out; however, be relaxed
and confident, not egotistical.
And finally, in this electronic era, do
not forget that your online “presence” is
very important. Many potential employers now look for job candidates’ profiles
on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to see what you post and
whether you might potentially embarrass
them if you became an employee. Some
do so before offering you an interview,
while others check before offering you a
job. So do not post anything online that
you would not want a potential employer
to see.
However you decide to become noticed, use common sense. I wish you the
best of luck! ◊
Kari Petrasek is the 2010–11 WYLD president. She is an attorney at Carson Law
Group, P.S. in Everett, and can be reached at
[email protected].
Member Spotlight
Chris Kringel
Chris Kringel lives in Woodinville. He recently moved back to Washington after having
lived in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with his girlfriend while she was completing her
residency in orthodontics. He grew up in Olympia and attended Washington State
University as an undergraduate and Case Western Reserve University in Ohio for law
school. He worked at an insurance defense firm in Florida before returning to this state,
where he is looking for a new position. He currently practices pro bono immigration law
as a solo practitioner. He can be reached at [email protected].
1. I became a lawyer because I had to do something with that $100,000+ law degree.
2. I am most proud of not giving up. I wish I were one of those brilliant people who always succeed at whatever they do, but
although I’ve made some good choices, I’ve also made some bad ones and have let people down. It’s not easy to fail, pick
yourself up, and try again, but I’m proud that I didn’t stay down.
3. During my free time I look for jobs, do pro bono work, clip coupons, try to find ways to save and/or earn money, exercise,
watch TV, read, and explore my new neighborhood. In the near future, I’d like to get my
pilot’s license, learn how to scuba and skydive, as well as get back into sailing, learning
foreign languages, playing the piano, cycling, hiking, and camping.
4. Exotic animal laws aside, my dream pet would be a pygmy goat. They are awesome!
I would teach it to ram people on command.
5. Nobody would ever suspect that I was a cheerleader at WSU for a year. And that I
really am Santa Claus.
6. The best advice I have for young lawyers is to use this time wisely. Whether you’re
looking for work or buried with it, study the Rules of Civil Procedure (know them backward
and forward), learn the law, keep in touch with your lender and make sure you know what’s
going on with your loans, and don’t be afraid to ask for help, either professionally or financially. Also, don’t neglect your nonlegal side — read a book, exercise, learn something not law-related; you never know where it will lead.
7. All-time favorite TV shows: A toss-up between “South Park” and “Law & Order.”
8. The best thing about where I live is that it’s close to lots of wineries. Wine may be my absolute favorite thing. Ever.
9. I care about the earth, humanity, and freedom. And making money. Lots and lots of money.
10. If $100,000 fell into my lap, I would be depressed that it’s still not enough
to get me out of my student loan debt, but then I would cheer up when I realized
that it would be enough to get me to a country without extradition where I could
live without worrying about repaying those loans.
11. Friends would describe me as indescribable.
12. I absolutely can’t live without ice cream, especially my recently discovered
Snoqualmie Gourmet Ice Cream’s Honey Cinnamon. And warm chocolate-chip
cookies. I kinda have a sweet tooth.
13. If I could change one thing about the law, it would be that those
responsible for creating it did a better job.
14. Before law school, I was an IT consultant and traveled around the
country testing cellphones, like the Verizon guy. Can you hear me now?
15. Happy-hour location/cocktail of choice: I am still searching for one closer
to home, but Norm’s in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood on Thursday for trivia is
my current favorite. Favorite drink is anything with rum in it.
Kringel and his girlfriend, Trina, at Sunset
Celebration, a nightly arts festival at Mallory
Square Dock in Key West, Florida.
16. The economy has affected me by making it nearly impossible to find a
decent job and completely failing to provide any relief for those drowning in
student loan debt. I wish I had bought a ridiculously overpriced house instead.
6
6
Off the Record
Effective Pre-trial Motions:
Persuading the Judge
by Maureen A. Howard
V
ictories won in pre-trial motions can
significantly affect the direction and
outcome of a trial. For this reason,
successful trial lawyers prepare for
motions with the same thoroughness that
they employ for the trial itself. Arguing a
motion to a trial judge, however, is different from arguing your case to a jury; to be
effective, an advocate needs to be mindful
of the difference.
Judges generally resist what they perceive as emotional manipulation, theatrics,
or excessive rhetoric. Many judges expect
lawyers to cleanly and succinctly argue the
facts and the law without employing any
appeal to emotion. That being said, judges
are human. They want to do the right thing.
They want their rulings to produce fair results, not just legally sound results. In this
regard, judges are influenced by the same
universal themes that speak to jurors. The
advocate’s goal is to incorporate a theme
into her argument that emotionally hooks
the judge without being off-putting. The
most effective way to do this is to be extraordinarily well-prepared and organized.
The advocate who demonstrates mastery of
the facts and the law, whose presentation
is tightly crafted and avoids repetition, and
who is prepared to answer questions from
the bench is in a better position to weave
her theme throughout her presentation
without irritating the judge.
Prepare, Prepare, Prepare! I
recommend using a three-ring notebook
organized to provide quick access to information needed to answer the judge’s
questions. Create separate tabbed sections
for each point you intend to argue. The
content should be pithy — virtual bullet
points — with citations to the relevant
section of your brief or other supporting
materials provided to the court. This allows flexibility in oral argument, which is
critical because the judge’s questions may
require you to change the order and emphasis of your arguments. It is advisable to
prepare a section for each issue before the
court, even if you don’t plan on arguing it,
because you do not have complete control
over the direction the oral argument will
take. You can store these backup sections in
the rear of the notebook as insurance. Then,
if the judge asks about an issue you had not
planned on arguing, you will be grateful
to be able to quickly turn to one of these
optional sections. Another tabbed section
should include brief summaries of the key
cases cited by both parties, with salient
quotes noted.
“Moot” Your Argument. Practicing
your oral argument will produce a smoother, more professional presentation. It will
also free you from overreliance on your
notes, allowing you to maintain crucial eye
contact with the judge. This lets you evaluate the judge’s response and adjust your
argument if needed. The goal is to speak to
the judge directly and not to read a pre-prepared statement — or, worse, repeat your
written brief, which the judge has presumably read. This is the time to address the
judge’s lingering concerns and questions.
Reading undermines an advocate’s credibility because the words of a writer can hit a
listener’s ear as stilted or artificial, and thus
disingenuous. Instead, use expanded bullet
points to guide your argument, each bullet
triggering the next point you want to make
to the judge.
Anticipate Questions. Whether
you practice your argument with someone
else or alone, you should be thinking of possible questions you may need to field from
the bench. Examine the issues not from the
vantage point of an advocate, but from that
of a third-party neutral: what questions
might you have? The weaknesses of your
position are particularly fertile grounds for
questioning from the bench. Think these
through in advance and prepare an answer
to each question you dread. Then, create a
tabbed section in your motions notebook
labeled “Questions” where you set forth
each anticipated question with notes outlining your proposed reply.
Start Strong. Begin by introducing
yourself and your client. Ask to reserve
time for rebuttal if you are the moving
party. Summarize for the judge at the
7
outset what you are asking for and why
the judge should give it to you. Get to
the essence of the motion by identifying
the issues the judge must decide for you
to win. Remember to incorporate your
theme from the outset, but use language
and tone that communicate reason and
integrity. Do not assume the judge has
read everything you have submitted, but
do not assume she has read nothing. The
better practice is to begin with a polite,
ambiguous inquiry along the lines of,
“Has Your Honor had an opportunity
to review the materials we submitted in
support (or opposition) to the motion?” I
have yet to see a judge admit to not reading the materials, but I have witnessed
several judges invite counsel to provide
them more background by saying something like, “I’ve had a chance to review
them briefly, counsel,” with a tone that
invites a more detailed presentation that
reviews the basics of the brief.
Embrace the Dialogue. Motions
argument is not a pre-prepared opening
statement or a closing argument: it is a dialogue between you and the judge. Although
every advocate prepares to give an uninterrupted oral presentation (because there are
those judges who will not ask a single question), the prepared advocate anticipates and
welcomes a chance to converse with the
judge. This means giving up a modicum
of control. If the judge speaks, stop speaking and don’t interrupt. If the judge asks a
question, pause before answering and organize your thoughts. Judges’ questions can
communicate quite a bit about what is important to them: within their questions are
hints about which issues they are debating
with themselves as they decide an issue.
Answer the Question. Although
law students are often trained to redirect an
appellate judge’s questions to an issue the
advocate wants to talk about, this strategy
is ill-advised in trial practice. If the judge
asks a question, answer it directly and be
scrupulously honest. In my experience, saying, “I’ll be getting to that later” or “That’s
not the issue here” will only alienate the
judge and harm your case. Remember,
you are arguing to the judge, not with the
judge. Also, in answering questions from
the bench, always be candid: it is perfectly
acceptable to say you don’t know the answer to a question. It is never proper to
extemporaneously shoot from the hip and
make a misrepresentation, no matter how
unintended. Be scrupulously honest in any
factual or legal representation — and if you
make a mistake, fix it at the earliest opportunity. Also, if you are being legally creative
and arguing for the extension of a rule beyond its present bounds, make sure to share
this with the court.
Protect Your Credibility. As is true
in all areas of trial practice, an advocate must
protect her credibility at every turn, because
it is the most critical asset to the work of
a trial lawyer. In the context of motions
practice, this means: make sure you know
and follow the rules of evidence, procedure,
and the local rules of practice; do not interrupt or visually react to opposing counsel’s
oral arguments; and do not make frivolous
arguments. As noted trial scholar James
McElhaney says, a frivolous argument only
undercuts your valid arguments. ◊
“Off the Record” is a regular column on various aspects of trial practice by Professor Maureen Howard, director of trial advocacy at the
University of Washington School of Law. She
can be reached at [email protected].
edu. Visit her webpage at www.law.washington.edu/Directory/Profile.aspx?ID=110.
Apply to Serve on a WSBA
Committee, Board, or Panel
The WSBA Board of Governors
invites applications for appointments to WSBA committees,
boards, and panels. Invest in
your profession and state bar
association and build connections with colleagues throughout
Washington.
Descriptions of each entity are
available at www.wsba.org/lawyers/groups/committees.
Submit your application online at
www.mywsba.org. Completed
applications and materials
must be received by March 11,
2011.
Communicating
Between
Generations
by Lisa Voso
For
the first time in history,
we have four generations in the workforce.
And there are more pronounced differences among the generations today than
ever before, as our world has changed so
much in the past 50 to 80 years. Being
aware of generational differences can help
you anticipate miscommunications and
tailor your message for maximum effect —
whether you’re applying for a job, pitching
a new idea to your boss, or dealing with
clients.
Part of the basis for those pronounced
differences has to do with the major
events that took place during the generational span. Once a generation enters
the workforce, we are better able to track
trends in its members’ behavior, decisionmaking, and communication techniques.
While not everyone fits neatly into a box,
the trend data collected over the past eight
decades is compelling.
The four generations presently in the
work force are: the Traditionalists (born
1922–43); the Baby Boomers (born 1943–
60); Generation X (born 1960–80); and the
Millenials (born 1980–2002).
The Traditionalists survived the
Great Depression and WWII. These
events were significant and critical in shaping their mindset — a mindset of hardship
and survival. Respect is the Traditionalists’ top psychological need. They place a
high premium on formality and the topdown chain of command. How does this
impact how you communicate with members of this generation? Over time, more
relaxed rules have made their way into the
workplace, but not for this generation. To
earn Traditionalists’ respect immediately,
use formal titles and attire. After you meet
someone from this generation for the first
time and address him or her using the title
8
“Mr.” or “Mrs.,” a person of this generation may then invite you to use his or her
first name. The way to maintain respect
is to wait for that invitation. In addition,
putting things in historical perspective
also can help sell Traditionalists on your
message, because they prefer to make decisions based on what has worked in the past.
While technology has come to govern most
of our work lives and our personal lives, for
most of the Traditional generation it has
not. As a generation, Traditionalists prefer
face-to-face meetings. Trust is important to
this generation, and members feel that the
most effective way of evaluating a person is
through face-to-face communication. Even
if you need to keep the meeting short, let
the Traditionalist know how much time
you have to spend with them, and they will
respect you for offering the in-person interaction. This generation is often offended
by the direct approach and the assumption
that they have an e-mail account or a cell
phone.
The Baby Boomers were influenced by non-stop historical events taking
place while they were growing up and as
they migrated into the workforce. Some of
these events include the Vietnam War, the
Free Speech Movement, the Civil Rights
Movement — and let’s not forget Woodstock. This generation is credited with reshaping corporate culture with more casual
dress codes and flexible schedules, which
stemmed from the Woodstock mentality.
Boomers are people who “live to work.”
Working hard is the No. 1 focus of this
generation. Its members worked hard to
change corporate culture and to alter the
laws governing this country and the perceptions of women and African-Americans
in the workforce. For the first time, both
parents were in the workforce, showing a
commitment from both sexes to achieve
success in the workplace. As a generation, Boomers tend to take on the traits of
workaholics, and are highly competitive
and willing to sacrifice for success. So much
happened during their formative years that
it really is no surprise that recognition is
most important to Boomers. Their recognition-oriented attitudes are instrumental
in learning how to communicate with this
generation. They tend to favor a personable style of communication that aims to
build rapport. But because recognition is
the critical psychological need for this generation, they tend to compete for the stage
and work to keep the focus on them. They
speak in lengthy orations; tell and re-tell
success stories; and are in the habit of sending long e-mails. The key is to listen and to
be patient. This is the fundamental reason
why the Boomers and members of Generation X communicate so poorly.
Generation X members were originally cast off by the Boomers as lazy, unappreciative, and harboring a sense of entitlement. Most do not realize, however, that
there were virtually no significant historical
events that occurred to really shape this
generation. Instead, the formative years of
Gen Xers were distinguished by capitalism
and the accumulation of material things.
Generational Communication Tips
Here are some quick pointers on communicating with members of the
different generations in the workplace:
Traditionalists
•
•
•
•
•
•
Build trust through inclusive language (we, us)
A leader’s word is his/her bond, so focus more on words, not body language
Face-to-face or written communication is received best
Use more formal language
Don’t waste their time; they have a job to do
Don’t expect them to share their innermost thoughts immediately
Baby Boomers
•
•
•
•
•
•
Boomers are the “show me” generation, so use body language to communicate
Speak in an open, direct style
Answer questions thoroughly, and expect to be pressed for details
Avoid controlling, manipulative language
Present options to show flexibility in your thinking
Use face-to-face or electronic communication to reach out
Generation X
•
•
•
•
•
•
Use e-mail as your primary communication tool
Present the facts in short sound bites to keep Gen Xers’ attention; use straight talk
Ask them for their feedback
Share information with them immediately and often
Use an informal communication style
Listen! You just might learn something
Millenials
•
•
•
•
•
•
Use action verbs to challenge them
Don’t talk down to them; they will resent it
Use e-mail and texting as primary communication tools
Use visual communication to motivate them and keep them focused
Constantly seek their feedback
Encourage them to break the rules and explore new paths or options
9
This generation was highly influenced
by the heavy work schedules of the Baby
Boomers, their parents. The Xers witnessed
hard-working parents and reaped the benefits of that hard work — such as a car to
drive and having college expenses covered.
There were no national or global events
that introduced this generation to strife,
and consequently its members learned that
if you work hard, you will have money for
nice things. Gen Xers grew up as “latch-key
kids,” frequently left to their own devices.
The two key things to remember about
the Gen Xers are that they are inherently
skeptical and independent.
Knowing that skepticism and independence are the key traits of this generation
sheds light on why the Gen Xers and the
Boomers do not generally communicate
well. The Gen Xers’ expectations are instantaneous and they lack the patience required to listen to Boomers communicate,
which offends Boomers. Xers are slower
to open up and share details, and often
need to process information independently
before drawing a conclusion. This is the
fundamental reason why the Xers and the
Boomers have such a difficult time communicating. Boomers dominate the conversation and want to share their wisdom and
knowledge. The Xers value their time and
work-life balance. Keep it short with Generation X. Give them an opportunity to be
heard. Workers from the Traditionalist and
Boomer generations can communicate best
with Gen Xers by cutting to the chase and
avoiding unnecessary meetings. Leave brief
messages or send short e-mails that specifically highlight items that actually require
action or response.
The most significant event that affected this generation is the current recession. It has shaken Gen Xers to the core,
and they are struggling fiercely and independently to figure things out. Statistically,
more Xers lost their homes and financial
grounding than any other generation during this recession, and they are having a
hard time processing what happened and
moving on. What will come out of this recession is likely a less independent generation, and hopefully a generation that learns
the power of collaboration.
The Millenials were shaped by the
Technology Era, which originated during this generation. They are members of
the first generation indoctrinated from
birth on the advancement of technology.
While experts are still collecting data on
this generation in the workforce, so far
collaborative and optimistic appear
to be Millenials’ defining traits. Millenials share Xers’ emphasis on work-life balance and comfort with technology. They
have been taught to put feelings on the
table, and have had significant influence
in how their families are run. They have
high expectations of salaries after college
graduation (unlike the Boomer thinking
of working your way up), and expect to be
the boss sooner rather than later. Do not
expect them to stay long at any one job.
Members of other generations often
look negatively upon the Millenials because
of this pattern. The fact is that corporate
employers no longer encourage longevity
in the way that was true for the Boomers.
Long gone are the retirement programs of
the past and the benefits packages that kept
workers committed to an employer for decades. And Millenials are used to speed and
change. They tend to get bored easily and
want to move on to learn something new.
These trends are not surprising, given that
this generation was so keenly shaped by the
pervasiveness of technology. What we are
finding is that the top-down model of business honed by the Boomer generation is no
longer effective in the Technology Era. The
Millenials are carving a new way of thinking and of building business. Communications with this generation need to be short
and use some form of technology. Text
messages are preferred, which is difficult
in a work environment. Instant messaging
helps keep Millenials focused and on task.
And if you send an e-mail, be sure to keep
it short. If you want to see more longevity
out of your Millenials, be sure to include
them in strategy meetings and in the business culture. Listen to what they have to
say, because their default to collaboration
and positive change is the way of the future.
The belief now is that the key to significant positive change in our workforce
and in our country is in the hands of this
generation. We will have to wait and see! ◊
Lisa Voso is a litigation attorney for Hardwick & Pendergast, a personal-injury firm in
Renton. She has 20 years of public-speaking
experience, beginning with her high-school
forensics team. In addition to practicing law,
Voso is a public-speaking coach for her business,
The Voso Impact, through which she trains
clients to overcome their public-speaking fears
and master the skills needed for successful interviews and presentations. She can be reached
by e-mail at [email protected].
Rebel without a Cause
(or a Will)
Meeting the estate-planning needs of younger clients
by Stacey L. Romberg
J
ames Dean, who died at age 24 in
a tragic auto accident, once said,
“Dream as if you’ll live forever. Live
as if you’ll die today.” On the day he
died, Sept. 30, 1955, Dean may have been
living life to the fullest, but he was not
prepared to die — at least from the legal
standpoint. Dean died intestate. As a result,
“most of his possessions went to his father,
Winton Dean, whose relationship with
him was distant at best.” 1
No one is invincible, even the young.
It is challenging convincing younger clients
they can benefit from estate planning. How
do you motivate them? Motivation comes
from knowledge. As their attorney, it is
your job to explain to younger clients, in
real terms, what the consequences can be
if they die intestate, or lack a power of attorney or a healthcare directive.
For example, suppose Dean’s entertainment lawyer had said, “James, I know you’re
only 24. But you are becoming a wealthy
young man. Do you know that, if you don’t
get a will done, and something bad happens
to you, everything will go to your dad? Is
that really what you want?”
The following are examples of what
you need to tell your younger clients while
guiding them through the estate-planning
process:
• A client who cohabitates needs to understand the consequences for his partner if
he dies intestate — i.e., without a legally
valid will. Will his partner really be able to
continue driving the car he was driving, and
living in the house they shared? Maybe;
maybe not.
• If your client has been married for a short
time and dies intestate, the probate may be
challenging due to the need to distinguish
between community and separate property. Many young clients assume that their
wives or husbands will automatically get
everything. But dying intestate may result
in undesired consequences that affect the
unprotected spouse.
• If your clients have young children,
guardianship and trust considerations are
10
paramount, and a key component of your
clients’ responsibilities as new parents.
• Your clients need to consider the impact
of their deaths on their parents. I have probated several estates of young decedents
who died intestate. The devastated parents
will grieve that loss for the rest of their lives.
You need to explain to your clients how, by
preparing, they can make the process easier
for their parents — especially if their parents will serve as personal representatives.
Their parents will also be comforted by understanding exactly how their child wanted
to handle her estate, and by knowing those
wishes were carried out.
• Pet ownership is common.2 Encourage
your clients to make certain they have
taken appropriate steps to meet their pets’
needs in the event that they are no longer
able to care for their animals.
• Estate planning is an important part of
everyone’s legacy. Members of Generation
Y (those born roughly between the late
1970s and late 1990s) focus on giving
back. (According to a recent survey, for
example, more than half of workers in
their twenties prefer employment at companies that provide volunteer opportunities.3) When working with Generation Y
clients, emphasize opportunities to make
charitable contributions in their wills, and
explore the idea that a will can be a document that expresses their personal values.
Once you have convinced a young
client of the wisdom of estate planning, it
is helpful to be aware of the demographics involved. Young clients may require
more frequent adjustments to their documents because their life circumstances
change more rapidly. Being knowledgeable of the general societal trends helps
you work with those clients and ensure
their documents change with them. For
example:
• Your clients are getting married later in
life than previous generations. In Washington, the median age for men to marry
is 27.5 years. For women, it’s 25.7 years.
These statistics closely mirror the national
average.4
2000. Cohabitating, unmarried couples
(including registered domestic partnerships) now represent 15 percent of Seattle
households.9 Significantly, a recent study
on such couples found that, after five to
seven years, only 21 percent of the pairs
were still together.10
When representing young clients,
you need to find out if they are cohabiting. If so, what are the circumstances? Is it
a committed relationship and the couple
wishes to complete their estate planning
jointly? Or did your client’s boyfriend get
laid off and then moved in to share expenses? Either way, the relationship needs
to be addressed as part of the estate planning process.
Your client needs to be advised that, if
It is challenging convincing younger clients
they can benefit from estate planning. How do
you motivate them? Motivation comes from
knowledge.
• In Seattle, many of your clients live in
households made up of one person. Two
out of five Seattle households are oneperson households, which is a higher percentage than other Washington cities and
other U.S. cities of comparable size. Also,
in Seattle, your clients are not likely to
have children.5 Only 20 percent of Seattle
households include someone younger than
18 years of age.6
Accordingly, many of the wills you
prepare for young clients may be “simple”
wills, with no testamentary trusts for children and no provisions for a spouse or
partner.
However, you need to also be aware
that the rates of cohabitation have increased. In 2009, the number of oppositesex couples choosing to cohabitate increased by 13 percent in the United States.
This spike in cohabitation rates appears to
be spurred by the recession, and the corresponding need to find affordable housing
and otherwise share expenses. Nationally, only 39 percent of newly cohabitating
couples consist of two employed persons.7
In addition, newly cohabiting couples
tend to be younger than other couples
who have previously made the commitment to live together.8 Seattle mirrors this
trend, although available statistics are not
as recent. Households of unrelated people
who live together make up 46 percent
of the city’s growth between 1990 and
a committed intimate relationship (CIR)
is found to exist between the two of them,
then joint property may be accumulated
that might be subject to claims by the
surviving partner as described in Connell v. Francisco, 127 Wn.2d. 339 (1995).
You should also encourage your clients to
enter into a domestic-partnership agreement to clarify the property rights and
obligations between partners. A young
client may be reluctant to enter into such
an agreement due to the cost and, potentially, uncertainty about the longevity
of the relationship. But you still need to
ensure your client understands the potential advantages of finalizing an agreement
and makes an informed choice. If your
client decides to enter into an agreement,
you need to follow up to make sure that
the client’s estate-planning documents
are consistent.
Finally, what about Washington
domestic partnerships registered pursuant to Chapter 26.60 RCW? More than
8,000 couples have registered as domestic
partners to date, according to the Washington Secretary of State’s office. Estate
planning attorneys need to ask their clients whether they have registered as domestic partners and, if so, whether they
also have a domestic-partnership agreement in place. You need to advise your
clients about their registration’s impact
on the estate-planning process, including
the accumulation of community property
11
and the rights of a surviving partner during the probate process. ◊
Stacey L. Romberg’s office is located in Seattle.
She focuses her practice on estate planning, probate, and business law. She can be contacted at
[email protected]. Her website address
is www.staceyromberg.com.
Notes
1. IMDb: The Internet Movie Database Biography for James Dean, available at www.imdb.
com/name/nm0000015/bio.
2. For example, the CATalyst Council, a nonprofit entity devoted to feline welfare, named
Seattle as the No. 7 Cat Friendly City in the
U.S. in 2009. See “The CATalyst 2009 Top 10
Cat-Friendly Cities,” available at http://catalystcouncil.org/newsroom/index.aspx?ID=5.
3. Penelope Trunk, “What Gen Y Really Wants,”
Time, July 5, 2007, available at www.time.com/
time/magazine/article/0,9171,1640395,00.
html.
4. NCFMR Family Profiles, “Median Age for
First Marriages in the U.S., 2008,” citing U.S.
Census Bureau, American Community Survey,
2008. Available at http://ncfmr.bgsu.edu/pdf/
family_profiles/file78895.pdf.
5. According to the City of Seattle Department of Planning and Development, the
percentages of one-person households in the
other four Washington cities with populations
over 100,000 range from 28 percent in Bellevue and Vancouver to 34 percent in Tacoma.
And the number of one-person households
increased by more than 11,000 between 1990
and 2000, accounting for 52 percent of Seattle’s new households during that decade. See
“Seattle Prior Census: 1900–2000 Population
and Housing Trends,” available at www.seattle.
gov/dpd/Research/Population_Demographics/
Prior_Censuses/1900-2000_Population_Housing_Trends/DPDS_007034.asp.
6. “In King County, the corresponding figure is
30 percent; in Washington state, 35 percent.”
See id.
7. Cheryl Wetzstein, “More Unmarrieds are
Living Together amid Tough Times,” Washington Times, September 23, 2010, available at
www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/sep/23/
more-unmarrieds-are-living-together-amidtough-tim/.
8. Sharon Jayson, “Census Study Finds Spike
in Cohabitation,” USA Today, October 3, 2010,
available at www.usatoday.com/printedition/
news/20100924/cohabitation24_st.art.htm.
9. See “Seattle Prior Census: 1900–2000 Population and Housing Trends,” available at www.
seattle.gov/dpd/Research/Population_Demographics/Prior_Censuses/1900-2000_Population_Housing_Trends/DPDS_007034.asp.
10. Dr. Phil, October 3, 2010, citing The Boston
Herald.
Laptop Sherlock: Untangling Investigations On the Web
by Linda Montgomery and Aimee Rachunok
Portions of this article include excerpts from a chapter entitled “Internet Investigations: What You Can
Do and How to Do It,” authored by
Linda Montgomery and Aimee Rachunok and included in the course
materials for the December 14, 2010,
WSBA-CLE seminar “Harnessing
the Power of the Internet for Your
Practice.” They are reprinted herein
with permission from WSBA-CLE
and the authors.
T
he Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks containing trillions of bits of information.
With the proper knowledge, a user can
access this information for a multitude of
reasons, including many purposes related to
civil and criminal litigation.
As useful a tool as the Internet has
become for conducting research, there is
the inevitable downside. In the past, valuable information was often difficult and
time-consuming to find — but with the
Internet, we now have the opposite problem. A single search criterion can return
thousands of hits, many non-relevant or
totally useless.
Search Engines Make It Easy
The need for a faster way to comb through
the billions of bits of information on the
Internet did not go unnoticed. As early as
1993, entrepreneurs have been developing search-engine vehicles. With creative
names such as Infoseek, Lycos, Excite,
Yahoo, Dogpile, and Google, among others, these search engines have continued
to be created and fine-tuned, and provide
excellent tools for research on the World
Wide Web.
How They Work: A Very Basic
Explanation of Complicated Programs
Search engines collect information from
the web with the use of web crawlers, also
known as “spiders.” The information is then
categorized and stored in databases called
“caches.” Web crawlers examine, analyze,
and store the information in each cache.
When a user makes a query, the index is
examined and a “best match” is provided to
the user according to the methods used by
any particular search engine for determin-
ing a “best match.” How a search engine
decides which pages are the best matches
varies widely.
Common Search Tools Using Boolean Logic and Boolean Connectors
Named after the English mathematician George Boole, “Boolean logic” is the
“mathematics of logic” from which rules
were derived that govern logical functions
and are the foundation of all electronic circuits in the computer. The “Boolean connectors” AND, NOT (the minus sign is
frequently used instead of the word NOT),
and OR are useful tools when searching for
a particular name or subject, as is the use of
quotation marks.
The use of quotation marks ensures
that results with all words in the quotes in
the order they were typed will be pulled.
For example, if you are looking for the
exact phrase Judy A. Smith, failure to place
that phrase in quotation marks may lead to
results that are overly expansive and lack
relevancy, such as when the terms Judy A.
and Smith are in the same article but not
immediately adjacent (such as Judy A. Jones
and Jim Smith).
Suppose you are investigating a person with a common name, such as Judy
Smith, who lives in Seattle and is a nurse.
You would search “Judy Smith” OR “Judith
Smith” OR “Judy A. Smith” AND nurse.
You would find many Judy Smiths, since
12
the name is common. You could further
narrow your results if you pulled up information about someone with that name who
is, for example, a photographer, by adding
-photographer to exclude all Judy Smiths associated with photography.
Once you have identified a number of
matching results, you can further refine your
search by using the minus sign to eliminate
the known results (for example: -nurse, -facebook, -linkedin) and also by eliminating vendors that will come up in your search (-pipl,
-spokeo, -intellius, etc). This will greatly reduce the number of hits and allow you to
review the remaining hits to make sure there
is nothing significant about your subject that
has not yet been found.
In addition to all variations of the person’s name, including putting the last name
first and using the name in combination with
any spouse’s name, you will want to search
the person’s e-mail address, username, and
any known current and previous addresses.
“Advanced Search” Box
Search engines such as Google have an
“advanced search” box on the home page
to the right of the search bar, where you
can enter the known information with
the search words preferred and those you
wish to exclude. This may be a handy way
for you to search until you master the use
of the Boolean and other search tools on
your own.
Beginning Your Search: Making a
Checklist
Before you begin a search, make a checklist of all variations of names and all
known qualifiers and websites that will be
searched. You will be adding new qualifiers
to this checklist as they are found during
your investigation.
A good place to start your search is using the websites www.pipl.com and www.
spokeo.com (part of the “Invisible Web,”
defined below). These are informational
sites where you often can obtain qualifiers
for your subject such as addresses, relatives, and similar information. Some of the
information on these sites is free, though
sometimes there are charges.
The Invisible Web: What Is It?
The Invisible Web refers to the many web-
sites available on the Internet that have not
been indexed by search engines. Invisible
Web content is estimated at 500 times that
of the surface web. It is often untapped due
to the limitations of traditional search engines. Types of websites in the Invisible Web
include, but are not limited to: brand-new
websites not yet picked up by search engines,
member-only websites, and online databases
that are inaccessible to crawler programs.
Informational Websites on the
Invisible Web
Especially helpful for background research
on individuals, there are websites for searching court records, property, news publications, telephone numbers, address histories,
blogs, tweets, business and professional
licenses, death records, social networks, employment résumés, and school records.
Some of the most useful sites for case
research in Washington state include:
Washington Statewide Upper and Lower
Court Searches
http://dw.courts.wa.gov
This website allows you to search Washington court cases. If your subject has a
common name, you will need to conduct
additional court research to determine
identity, but this is a great start.
Washington State Court Directory
www.courts.wa.gov/court_dir
This is a free resource that provides contact
information for every level of court in every
county in Washington.
Washington State Patrol
https://fortress.wa.gov/wsp/watch
This site provides an online statewide criminal-history search on individuals for $10.
There are a number of sites helpful for
searching court records from other states
and federal court records, including:
Federal Courts Database
www.pacer.gov
Obtain federal bankruptcy, civil, and criminal cases for a fee of just $0.08 per page.
The actual case files from the more recent
cases are available with the click of your
mouse. You must become a registered user
(anyone can become a registered user of
Pacer), but it is well worth signing up.
State-by-State Court Research
www.brbpub.com
This site, which focuses on public records, is
an excellent resource for detailed information on court systems within each state, and
as well as contact information for records
retrievers by county. Limited resources are
available for free, but the reasonable annual
membership fee ($100 per year at last inquiry) is justified by the utility of this resource.
Useful sites for neighborhood and
property investigations include the King
County parcel search (available at
www5.kingcounty.gov/parcelviewer/viewer/kingcounty/viewer.asp), Google Maps,
Zillow, and Vpike.
With the increasing popularity of
blogs and Twitter, you may want to search
these as well:
Twitter
www.twitter.com
Some people keep their tweets private, but
others are viewable by anyone. If you have
an account, you can see who people are following and who is following them. Tweetdeck (www.tweetdeck.com) is a free software download that allows you to search
the entire Twitter network.
When conducting business background and due-diligence checks, the following sites are helpful:
Washington State Professional License
Database
https://fortress.wa.gov/dol/dolprod/
bpdLicenseQuery
This is the first place to check for the existence and status of professional licenses in
the state.
Washington State Department of
Revenue
http://dor.wa.gov/content/doingbusiness/registermybusiness/brd
Here you can search the state’s Department
of Revenue site for business or corporation
listings for free.
Libraries are excellent resources for all
kinds of information, such as news and publication searches. With a library card, you
can access their databases online. The following online library resources are helpful:
a list of the nation’s public libraries, available
at www.librarytechnology.org/USPublicLibraries.pl; the King County Library Online
Database Access, available at www.kcls.org/
databases, and the Seattle Public Library
Database, available at www.spl.org/default.
asp?pageID=collection_db_subscription.
Some websites that have been removed
from the Internet can be found stored in
the “Wayback Machine” at www.archive.
org, where you can browse through more
than 150 billion webpages archived from
1996 to a few months ago.
Saving Information
When you find important information
that you may want to present in court, you
will want to save it by taking a screen shot
of the contents of the page. Information on
the Internet comes and goes at a rapid pace,
and we have often seen helpful information
disappear the very next day after it is located.
Two programs we have found useful for saving possible evidence unearthed during our
Internet investigations are Snagit (available at
no charge with a 30-day trial at www.techsmith.com) and Printkey 2000 (downloadable for free but unable to capture videos). ◊
Linda Montgomery is the principal of Linda
Montgomery Investigations in Seattle. She can
be reached at [email protected]. Aimee Rachunok is a senior investigator at Linda Montgomery Investigations. She can be reached at
[email protected].
WYLD Seeks Volunteers for
Yakima Pre-Law Leadership Conference
This spring, the WYLD will host the 18th annual Pre-Law Leadership
Conference in Yakima for Eastern Washington high-school students.
The conference workshops and speakers inspire at-risk youth and
minority students to consider a legal career and to take active leadership roles in their communities and student governments, through
creatively addressing hot-button legal issues. Attorney volunteers are
needed to prepare workshops, recruit students from local schools, and
assist with conference planning and logistics. To participate in the conference, contact the chair, Alma Zuniga, at [email protected].
13
Counsel over Cocktails?
What to do when friends and family ask for legal advice
by Trent M. Latta
I
t seems that on occasion we all practice some form of “Friends and Family
Law.” You know the scenario: Grandma
calls to ask you a few “simple” questions about the tax implications of her
will (clearly you failed to previously share
with her that you narrowly passed Wills
and Trusts class in law school). Or a friend
corners you at a happy hour, with a “really quick” question concerning a Notice to
Pay Rent or Quit she found affixed to her
apartment door the prior evening. Or even
worse, your uncle wants advice on the dissolution of his marriage to your aunt.
There is a part of all of us that went
to law school so we could serve as the “inhouse” family counsel or the friend with
the legal moxie. But is there any degree
of legal help we can offer our friends and
family members without creating a conflict
or becoming their attorney?
“It’s really dangerous,” says Karen
Boxx, a faculty member and Professional
Responsibility professor at the University
of Washington School of Law, on whether
an attorney should provide legal advice to
friends and family legal. “The attorneyclient relationship is a subjective test,” she
explains, “and it is almost impossible to
protect yourself. You are at risk. And unless
you do something like send them a letter,
your friend or family member could say
they relied on your advice.”
Boxx recommends an all-or-nothing approach. “The real problem is that it is difficult
to give helpful advice unless you have all the
relevant information,” she says. “But you are
not going to get all the relevant information
in a casual conversation. You are better off
assuming the representation pro bono or not
discussing their legal issues with them at all.”
Before you accept full representation and strut into court on behalf of your
older brother or “sort-of ” significant other,
however, you should first consider added
complications that can arise when your
client is a close friend or a trusted family member. “It may not be easy to offer
candid advice or to say no to a client who
is a family member or close friend,” Boxx
warns. “Your legal instincts may easily be
swayed by a family member who historically has held a position of authority over
you. Lawyers have been sued for malprac-
tice because their professional judgment
was overridden by the influence of family
members and people they trusted.”
In this kind of situation, while it may not
be easy telling the mom and dad who sent
you money during law school that you cannot
serve as their attorney, it may nonetheless be
in their best interest that you do so.
There are also ethical implications you
should consider before volunteering to “ghostwrite” a letter or other document on behalf of
a friend or family member. Boxx believes that
“there can be ethical problems when a lawyer
ghost-writes a pleading for a pro se litigant. The
problem is that the court is going to give the
pro se litigant leeway without knowing he is receiving behind-the-scenes legal help.” Ghostwriting a letter in a non-litigation context,
however, does not create the same concerns
about misleading a court.
When there are concerns about a conflict, or you just do not want to open the
door to potential family or social drama,
Boxx recommends directing friends and
family members to resources such as alternative counsel to provide assistance. Many
non-lawyers are not aware of opportunities to receive free legal advice from notfor-profit legal organizations — much less
where to even begin seeking help. When
approached by a friend or family member
with a legal dilemma, consider sending her
an e-mail with a link to the “For the Public”
page on the WSBA’s website (www.wsba.
org/public/default.htm) or to a legal-aid
clinic’s information page. By doing so, you
are offering genuine help while simultaneously avoiding a conflict of interest or establishing an attorney-client relationship.
The fact is that aside from pontificating
on general — very general — legal principles,
the Rules of Professional Conduct simply do
not allow you to offer case-specific legal advice without also potentially establishing an
attorney-client relationship. In sum, the few
key points to remember when approached
by a family member or friend seeking legal
advice are these: 1) do not assume that by
keeping to “casual conversation” you have
avoided establishing an attorney client relationship; 2) before accepting full representation, consider the tricky conflicts that may
arise and be sure you will be able to offer
open and honest legal advice; and 3) consider directing your friend or family member
to alternative legal-aid sources, including
free or low-cost options. ◊
Trent M. Latta is a senior associate at Foley &
Mansfield’s Seattle office. He can be reached at
[email protected] or 206-380-7446.
ABA Seeks Attorneys to Judge Seattle Moot Court Competition
March 3–5, 2011
The ABA Law Student Division is recruiting oral-argument judges for the
2010–11 Seattle Regional National Appellate Advocacy Competitions
(NAAC). Licensed attorneys are needed to serve as competition judges.
It’s an opportunity to interact with the finest advocates that the nation’s law
schools have to offer. With 207 teams from 121 law schools competing, the
event is one of the largest moot-court competitions in the country.
Where: U.S. District Court for Western Washington
700 Stewart St., Ste. 15128, Seattle
For information, see www.wsba.org/lawyers/groups/wyld/abajudgerequest.
pdf. Questions? Contact Peggy Pissarreck at 312-988-5621 or naac@staff.
abanet.org.
14
Is Superior Court Always…Superior?
Weighing the benefits and drawbacks of district court
by Allison Moon
T
he task of figuring out one set of court
rules can be daunting for a new attorney. The task of mastering two can feel
downright overwhelming. For this reason, most attorneys never become proficient
in the Civil Rules for Courts of Limited Jurisdiction (CRLJs). With a few exceptions,
these rules govern the procedure for civil
suits in all trial courts of limited jurisdiction,
including district and municipal courts. Superior court offers the advantage of general
jurisdiction — i.e., there is no limit on the
types of civil and criminal cases heard. This
means for the most part that any case that
can be filed in superior court can also be filed
in district court. However, district court offers
several advantages over superior court that
might make learning the CRLJs worthwhile.
District court has concurrent jurisdiction with superior court over civil claims
less than $75,000, and exclusive jurisdiction over small claims and infractions. The
advantages and disadvantages of district
court can be summarized as follows: District court is generally quicker and more
cost-effective than superior court, but
achieves these benefits by sacrificing preparation time and depth of discovery.
Compare Civil Rule 26 to CRLJ 26
and the district court’s discovery limitations
become clear. Under CR 26, the parties’ use
of discovery methods is limited by the court
if it determines that the discovery sought is
unreasonably duplicative, is obtainable from
some other source that is more convenient,
or discovery is unduly burdensome or expensive, among other criteria. See CR 26(b)
(1)(A-C). Aside from these general restrictions, discovery is essentially unlimited. In
contrast, CRLJ 26 permits each party to
depose any other party plus two additional
people; allows each party to send two sets
of no more than 20 interrogatories; and
caps requests for production at five separate
groups of documents. Additional discovery
beyond these limitations can only be conducted upon court order.
The deadlines for discovery are also
different in district and superior court. CR
26 imposes no specific deadline by which
discovery must be complete, and conferences may be used to create a discovery
schedule. CRLJ 26 requires that discovery
be complete within 60 days of the discovery
demand or 90 days of service of the summons and complaint, whichever is longer.
Compare the rules on summary judgment and another interesting distinction appears. Both courts permit either party to move
for summary judgment, in part or in whole,
without providing supporting affidavits. However, the rules differ in that CR 56 requires that
a motion for summary judgment be filed 28
days before the hearing, while CRLJ 56 requires that the motion be filed only ten days
before. If you are aware of this distinction you
can use it to your advantage. Remember that
most attorneys are more familiar with the
28-day deadline, and the district court’s short
timeframe on summary judgment motions
might catch opposing counsel off guard.
Other distinctions between superior
court and district court are not readily apparent by comparing the rules. For example,
depending on which county you practice in,
the district court judges may or may not be
familiar with civil law. In King County, for
example, most district-court judges only
hear criminal cases and infractions, while in
smaller counties the judges serve on both the
superior and district courts, and are accordingly familiar with civil law and procedure.
Another nuanced distinction is that
district court may be a more advantageous
venue for claims against insurance companies. In superior court, claims less than a
certain amount are sent to mandatory arbitration in many counties, while in district
court the same claims would go to trial. As
a rule of thumb, insurance companies are
judgment averse and are more likely to pay a
claim if faced with the threat of an actual trial in district court. Under the mandatory arbitration process, the insurer essentially gets
an opportunity to see how the case plays out
without the risk of a judgment, since a party
can move for a new trial after the arbitration.
District court also offers financial
advantages that may translate to strategic
advantages. Its filing fees are substantially
lower than those in superior court, and the
restrictions on discovery and time limitations will likely result in your client paying less in attorneys’ fees and costs. If your
client has limited financial resources, this
difference can both save your client money
and frustrate a wealthier opponent’s at15
tempt to outlast your client. Also, if the
opposing party has seemingly unlimited
resources, the restrictions on discovery can
thwart attempts to overburden your client
with discovery requests.
This final distinction is one I personally
learned about the hard way. In superior court,
“a civil action is commenced by service of a
copy of a summons together with a copy of
a complaint…or by filing a complaint.” CR
3. This means you can serve the defendant
with the complaint before filing it. If the
defendant does not respond in 20 days, you
can go to court and simultaneously file your
complaint and motion for default judgment. You can probably guess what happened
in my case. I served my summons and complaint on the defendant, waited 20 days, and
then simultaneously filed my complaint and
motion for default in district court. The court
responded by letter with notification that it
accepted my complaint, but that I would
need to reserve the defendant and wait another 20 days before I could move for default
judgment. Upon receiving this letter, I read
CRLJ 3 — sure enough, it says “A civil action
is commenced by filing with the court a complaint.” You cannot start an action in district
court by serving a complaint on the defendant. If there is a lesson here to be learned, it
is to never assume the rule is the same in both
courts. Always read the relevant rules.
While district court offers some inherent advantages over superior court, the main
advantages are derived from a lawyer’s familiarity with the differences between the two
sets of rules. Many attorneys do not know
the ins and outs of the CRLJs because they
rarely appear in district-court actions. This
fact alone makes it worthwhile to invest time
and energy into learning the CRLJs when
you get involved in a district court matter or
are filing a case over which the superior and
district courts have concurrent jurisdiction.
Mastering all the tools at your disposal cannot help but give you a competitive advantage over the majority of civil litigators. ◊
Allison Moon is a Seattle attorney whose practice emphasizes civil litigation, probate,
and landlord-tenant matters.
She can be reached at [email protected].
Practice Success 101
Feeling the Love: How to Make Your Colleagues
Fall for You (Platonically Speaking) at the Office
by Peter Roberts
“T
he law is a people business” as far
as clients are concerned, someone once said. This statement is
certainly true. I believe that the
law is also a “people business” within each
firm — whether it includes 100 lawyers
or just one.
Under the best of circumstances, the
practice of law can be chaotic. Even with
court rules and practice protocols, the
people involved supply ample chaos in any
matter. Who knows what the opposing
party will do or say? Ditto for opposing
counsel, witnesses, the judge, and even
WYLD Continues Partnership with YMCA Mock Trial Program
Would you like to be part of one of the nation’s highest-ranked high school
mock trial programs? Do you enjoy sharing your knowledge of the law with
young people? Are you interested in increasing the ethnic and socioeconomic diversity within the legal profession, as well as raising the standard
for ethics and professionalism in the legal profession overall?
If you answered yes to the questions above, the YMCA Mock Trial program
is the program for you! Legal professionals are needed around Washington
to help coach high school mock trial teams and volunteer at state and local
competitions. Don’t think you have the time? Don’t worry! There is a volunteer opportunity that can fit into even the busiest of schedules.
• Team coaches work with teachers and fellow attorneys throughout the
year to help students prepare their cases for competition.
• District raters score student performances during local competitions
throughout the month of February.
• State raters score student performances at the state competition, March
25–26, 2011, in Olympia.
You can help spread the word by letting your colleagues and friends know
about this amazing opportunity to support the democratic education of our
state’s young people.
For the past 24 years, the YMCA Mock Trial program has been giving members of the legal community the opportunity to become civically engaged in
something that gives them inspiration and hope for the future of our state and
the legal profession as a whole. This year, your support is needed more than
ever. Ten new mock trial programs are starting up in schools across Washington. In order for them to succeed it is critical that members of the legal
community step up to meet the challenge.
For more information on how to get involved in the YMCA Mock Trial program, contact the YMCA Youth & Government office at 360-357-3475 or
e-mail [email protected], or the Washington Young Lawyers
Division program leaders (Sean Walsh, chair, [email protected];
Megan Valentine, chair-elect, [email protected]). Donations may be sent to YMCA Youth & Government, PO Box 193, Olympia, WA
98507.
16
your own client!
In contrast, consider your office environment, which can be a place of control
and serenity. Do not laugh at the notion
of serenity in your office — I am serious!
Because you control what goes on in your
own office, you should impose as much order as possible. Here are some suggestions
about how to make this happen:
• Have systems in place for workflow. What happens and when after each
new matter is accepted?
• Do not cast blame. Instead, explore
why a mistake happened and change procedures, if necessary, to avoid the mistake
in the future. In the heat of any tense moment, be aware of yourself and your behavior. Occasions arise when you certainly
have the right to feel frustrated or even
angry. Direct those feelings at the situation — not at a person.
• Be cheerful and aware of others.
Listen carefully to those around you.
Your staff is a huge source of information.
The partners are storehouses of experience and wisdom.
• Take your staff person to lunch once
in a while.
• Communicate effectively. “Effectively” means to listen (not hear) and to
articulate fully.
• Be willing to learn new skills. It
broadens your effectiveness and can be fun.
• Discourage “sour grapes.” When
others complain, look for the bright side
of any situation. You will be perceived as
a leader.
• Look ahead, plan, and accomplish
tasks timely and by their priority.
Limit procrastination. Your staff will love
you! ◊
Peter Roberts is the practice management advisor with the WSBA Law Office Management Assistance Program. He can be reached
at 206-727-8237, [email protected], and
www.lomap.org.
During Economic Downturn, More Young
Lawyers Turning to Pro Bono Projects to Keep
Busy, Gain Experience
by Mercedes Riggs
T
he unemployment rate is hovering to discuss next steps in the case flow and to gain skills and close the knowledge gap.
around nine percent, and law-firm network with fellow volunteers.”
Similarly, Jordan Wasserman, NWIRP
clients are less than enthusiastic about Diana Singleton, director of the Ac- pro bono coordinator, has noticed that, with
having newbies bill time on their mat- cess to Justice Institute at Seattle University the economic downturn, there is a significant
ters. The result: many young lawyers are School of Law, has noticed that people are increase in young lawyer pro bono involveusing their down time by taking on pro drawn to organizations like the King Coun- ment. He says that it is more difficult to get
bono work. This is not only a way to gain ty Bar Association Housing Justice Project experience because there are fewer jobs, and
experience in a manner
that benefits their pro- Young lawyers are taking advantage of volunteering to
fessional development; it gain skills and close the knowledge gap.
also allows unemployed
and underemployed young lawyers to keep (www.kcba.org/volunteer/hjp/volunteer. pro bono opportunities offer the experience
current on legal issues, network with other aspx) and Northwest Immigrant Rights that young attorneys lack while strengthening
lawyers and potential clients, and interact Project (www.nwirp.org). She believes that résumés. Wasserman notes that unemployed
with people in ways that are normally not people are drawn to the HJP because it offers attorneys are not the only new lawyers turnavailable to young associates.
opportunities for attorneys to spend time ing to pro bono work; a number of young
I spoke to a few people about trends in court without being overwhelming. The associates have more time to do pro bono
in pro bono. Some of the people I talked to HJP provides skill-building with a limited projects because work for paying clients is not
noticed an overall increase in the number amount of involvement in particular cases. filling up their schedules.
of people doing pro bono work — possibly People get involved in NWIRP because it Pro bono work does not just build
because they are looking to gain experience, offers thorough and high-quality training, résumés — it provides meaningful experiand because the sluggish economy has led and it provides a support system for newer ences in client representation. Alex Robto an increased need for free legal services. attorneys, notes Singleton.
bins, an attorney practicing in Washington,
Cheryl Zalenski, director of the American Pam Feinstein, Washington statewide D.C., did pro bono work while working at
Bar Association Center for Pro Bono, has coordinator of pro bono support, says that a large firm to gain additional experience.
also noticed an increase in participation by turnout for a couple of volunteer lawyer He volunteered to work on a Board of Imyounger attorneys.
projects has revealed “an increase in younger migration Appeal (BIA) from a decision
While Zalenski has not observed no- attorneys doing pro bono — looking for ex- he and a friend found on a bulletin from
ticeable general trends in the types of pro perience, networking, mentoring, and keep- the Catholic Legal Immigration Network’s
bono opportunities that attract new attor- ing busy.” She says these organizations “think BIA Pro Bono Project.
neys, she is “seeing providers developing that many of these young attorneys would With Robbins’s help, his client’s recreative solutions to the need for increased not have contacted them if the volunteers had quest for asylum was granted. Robbins
supervision of and networking among had jobs waiting right after law school.” The described his work on the case as an “aweyoung attorneys.” She gives the follow- volunteer-lawyer-project coordinators she some” experience. He chose to work on an
ing example: Chicago Volunteer Legal has spoken with have agreed that “utilizing immigration matter because he wanted
Services “ThunderDome” clinics, which mentors for young and new attorneys, as well the opportunity to be “totally on [his]
invite attorneys such as deferred associates as clinic opportunities, seem to be of most client’s side,” and to work with someone
and solo practitioners to enroll in a spe- help in attracting this demographic,” she says. whose cause he “really believed in.” The
cial family law volunteer project — as well Vicki Huebner, assistant dean of Law case paid off for Robbins both emotionas provide mortgage foreclosure defense Career Services at Santa Clara University’s ally and professionally: he used a redacted
advice matters. The clinics provide a “sub- School of Law, notices that there is a knowl- version of his brief as a writing sample for
stantive background for simple divorce edge gap with new attorneys. Huebner says his application to his current job with the
cases from grounds, child custody, child that when the economy was stronger, law government. ◊
support, visitation, property and debt dis- firms and clients were fine with paying to
tribution and maintenance,” says Zalenski. train new attorneys — but now clients are
“Each class of volunteers goes through balking at associate rates and firms are only Mercedes Riggs is an attorney based in Beltraining together, from initial acceptance interested in employing attorneys who are levue. She has been a member of the Washof a divorce case to the final judgment. already skilled. Huebner finds that young ington Bar since 2010. She can be reached at
Periodic trainings provide an opportunity lawyers are taking advantage of volunteering [email protected].
17
Separation Anxiety:
Managing Client Funds with an IOLTA
by Lainie Patterson
Y
ou got your first check from a client, but don’t know where to deposit
it. You are not alone: new attorneys
starting their own law offices have
many questions about client funds and Interest on Lawyers’ Trust Accounts, known
as IOLTAs. You studied for the ethics
portion of the bar exam, so at some point
you learned about Rules of Professional
Conduct 1.15A and 1.15B, the rules that
govern client-trust accounts. But now in
the flurry of activity of setting up a new
practice, you can’t remember a thing, other
than “keep client money safe and separate
from lawyer money.” That’s a good start. It’s
a mantra you should repeat whenever you
have a question about money.
Do I need an IOLTA?
The primary purpose of an IOLTA is
to keep client funds safe from a lawyer’s
creditors. A creditor will seek out any bank
account with your tax identification or Social Security number if it gets a judgment
against you. The IOLTA, while having your
name on it, is set up using the tax ID number of the Legal Foundation of Washington. This gives creditors notice that these
are not your funds, and prevents them from
taking client money to satisfy a judgment
they may have against you.
For the same reason, lawyers should not
keep any of their own money in IOLTAs.
If you keep your money in an IOLTA, it
gives creditors a colorable argument to access the IOLTA and take client funds. This
is also the reason client funds should never
be in your personal or operating accounts.
They could get extracted if a judgment is
executed against you.
If you receive client money, you need
an IOLTA. Client money is money received
from another person that does not immediately belong to the lawyer, and relates to
a representation. It isn’t the club dues for
your child’s Little League team, unless you
are the lawyer for the team. It is money paid
in advance by the client to cover future fees
and/or costs associated with his matter. It
includes settlement proceeds received from
a case you are handling, even if you received
them from a third party. If you anticipate
receiving client funds, then you should
open an IOLTA. If not, you can wait until
you need one.
Setting up an IOLTA
If you receive client funds, you will need an
IOLTA immediately because you cannot
deposit this money into your own checking
account — not even for a minute. Only a
lawyer admitted to practice can be a signer
on an IOLTA account. Here are the three
steps for opening an IOLTA:
1. Check the Legal Foundation website for a list of approved banks (www.
legalfoundation.org/pages/bank_list). It is
fine to use your regular bank if it appears on
the list. Some practitioners prefer to use a
different bank to reduce the risk of writing
a check on the wrong bank account. At the
very least, order checks in a different color
from checks for your other bank accounts.
2. Print out the “Request to Establish
IOLTA Account” form from the WSBA
website at www.wsba.org/info/operations/
finance/newreqtoestiolta.pdf. Fill it out and
bring it to the bank.
3. You may deposit some of your
own funds initially to open the account
and to cover the cost of ordering checks,
the endorsement stamp, deposit slips, etc.
This should only be a reasonable amount
sufficient to cover these costs and keep the
account open during times when there are
no client funds. If you can, ask the financial
institution to deduct bank charges from your
operating account, which will only be possible if you open the IOLTA at the same
bank where you have your operating account.
Basic recordkeeping
You can keep trust-account records manually
or electronically, provided the format meets
the requirements of the RPCs. Programs such
as Quickbooks are very helpful, but you need
to understand what the program is doing.
Start with a check register. This is a
chronological list of all transactions in the
trust account. Each entry into the check
register must include the date of the trans18
action, the person or entity providing or
receiving funds, the amount, the associated
client/matter, and the new account balance
after that transaction. Make sure you enter
every transaction — including those involving bank fees and charges.
You will also need a client ledger for
each client. This is an individual record of
all transactions relating to one client and/
or matter. These can also be in paper or
electronic form. Every transaction for that
client must be listed chronologically on
his ledger. Include the date of the transaction, payee or payor, amount, purpose of
the transaction, and the client’s new trust
account balance. If you have some of your
own funds in the account for bank fees,
make a ledger showing that as well.
Deposits
The deposit slip should include the date of
the deposit, the amount, the related client
or matter, and the name of the payor. Keep
copies of the checks you are depositing and
the deposit slip for a minimum of seven
years. If you receive funds via wire or bank
transfer, print out the receipt from the bank
and manually note the payor and the client/
matter associated with the funds.
If you plan to take credit cards for trust
funds, you will need a separate merchant
account number for processing these transactions directly into the trust account. You
can’t deposit all credit cards into one bank
account, and then transfer it to another. Try
to have the processor take merchant account fees out of your operating account. If
they won’t, you’ll need to be diligent about
replacing these funds immediately after
they are withdrawn (i.e., client funds cannot be used to pay merchant fees).
Disbursements
Disbursements are payments out of the trust
account. You can write checks, send wires, or
make bank transfers. You cannot go to the
bank and withdraw cash or take cash from
an ATM. Before disbursing funds, make
sure the client’s deposit has cleared the
bank. Check with your bank for its policy,
but don’t confuse “available balance” with
what has actually cleared. Typically, a 10-day
waiting period is advisable. Wire deposits
are cleared immediately, as are cash deposits.
Beware of cashier’s checks because it may
take several weeks for a fraudulent cashier’s
check to bounce. By then, you could have
made disbursements resulting in an overdraft of your account. The WSBA website
posts information about fraud schemes as
they become known.
You can withdraw money to pay fees
owed to you after you have sent an invoice
or statement to the client and given them
a reasonable amount of time to receive the
invoice. If you are paying a cost, such a filing fee, for the client, you can remove the
necessary funds without notifying the client, but it should be included on the next
invoice. If you receive a settlement, prepare
a settlement statement showing the disposition of funds and have it signed by the client. Finally, when a matter is concluded, you
should refund the client’s remaining balance.
Reconciliations
Each month when the bank statement arrives, you must reconcile the bank statement
and the client ledgers. To reconcile the bank
statement, start with the ending balance on
the statement. Add to this amount any deposits that have since been made but don’t
appear on the statement. Subtract any
checks you’ve written, but also don’t appear.
The resulting total should be the same as
the check-register balance. If it does not
balance, make sure that all transactions have
been entered in the check register, that the
amounts of the checks and deposits are the
same as what appears on the statement, and
that your calculations are correct.
To reconcile the client ledgers, total up
each client’s ledger balance as of the same
date used for the bank reconciliation. Compare this to the check-register balance on
that same date. These amounts should be
identical. If not, use the same steps listed
above to find errors. Keep a copy of both of
these reconciliations. If you do this monthly, as the RPCs require, it is much easier to
find errors quickly.
Additional resources
For more information about IOLTAs, the
WSBA website provides a booklet titled
“Managing Client Trust Accounts,” available
at www.wsba.org/info/operations/finance/
trustaccountbooklet060810.pdf. Whenever
you are dealing with trust accounts and questions arise, call the WSBA at 206-443-9722
or 800-945-9722, or send an e-mail to [email protected]. ◊
Lainie Patterson is the WSBA random auditor. Her main responsibilities include conducting random audits and educating lawyers
and their staff about trust account rules and
regulations. Lainie holds a B.A. from Washington State University and a J.D. from the
University of Washington. She can be reached
at [email protected].
Foreign Concept:
Explore working abroad before giving up on a legal career
by Arundel Pritchett
T
hat there is a shortage of entrylevel law jobs is old news. When
recently asked how many applications I had turned in before
receiving an offer, I had no idea — it must
have been several hundred. It’s easy to get
discouraged and start thinking about other
fields of employment. Taking on a non-law
job while looking for a legal position may
be a necessity to pay those omnipresent
bills, but expanding your search field within
the legal profession also can’t hurt.
I had a less-than-typical voyage to my
current job, where I practice immigration
law in Anchorage, Alaska. After taking the
bar exam in Washington, I traveled to the
United Kingdom to pursue an LL.M., and
for a time found myself in the unique situation of being a Washington lawyer able to
live and work in the U.K. The twists and
turns of life meant I ultimately ended up
back in the United States, but with a new
understanding of how to be involved in the
legal field as a “foreigner.”
Probably the most important thing
to consider when looking for jobs outside
the state is that the economy is bad worldwide. Just as in the United States, lawyers
abroad are working in other fields while
looking for the elusive entry position. A
Swiss lawyer friend working with children
replies, “Because I couldn’t get a job,” when
asked about his career change. Nonetheless,
opportunities exist for those who want to
leave our fair shores.
One option is to consider a position
teaching American-style legal writing to
foreign lawyers. With English being the
current world language of commerce and
industry, foreign or international corporate law firms sometimes employ native
English-speaking attorneys to teach legalwriting skills to their local attorneys. While
possibly not providing the high-paced
courtroom action you may have envisioned
as a 1L, such jobs usually offer decent pay
19
and provide an opportunity to see how law
is practiced in another country.
A major hurdle is locating such opportunities. While positions are sometimes
posted on job search sites, unsolicited letters and extensive networking are often
necessary. Know somebody who practices
international business law? Ask him to
mention to foreign colleagues that you are
looking for such a position. Experienced
legal writing instructors may be able to go
abroad through grants such as a Fulbright.
Volunteering or internships are other
areas that are sometimes overlooked.
Think you can’t afford not getting paid?
See if you can take advantage of the federal
legislation regarding student loans to minimize payments, save up money from your
barista job, and sublet your apartment for
a few months. There are numerous forums
to look for international volunteer opportunities, including the fabulous www.
pslawnet.org. London-based Advocates
for International Development (A4ID)
maintains a database of international
NGOs looking for volunteer lawyers at
www.a4id.org/placements. I interned at
A4ID, and found a pro bono opportunity
at Minority Rights Group International
through their database.
You may find it more worthwhile to
spend your jobless or underemployed time
supporting human-rights organizations in
the developing world instead of taking on a
low-paying job in your hometown to make
ends meet. The decision may spur a shortterm money crunch, but will ultimately boost
your résumé and may spark a job prospect.
Want more structure? Consider the
Peace Corps or a similar organization. The
cons include a longer assignment, but may
provide benefits such as established healthcare and safety planning — not to mention
deferred student loans. Although I do not
have personal experience with such service,
I drooled over an apparently like-minded
lawyer’s blog: http://quinnunc.blogspot.
com/2009/03/lawyers-dont-surf.html.
Another option is practicing American
law abroad. The big international firms are
a good place to begin a search, but there
are American lawyers practicing federal law
such as tax or immigration in many countries worldwide. Finding such work may
necessitate extensive networking, not to
mention assistance with obtaining a work
permit, but the jobs do exist. Consider
writing smaller American firms abroad to
inquire about possibilities.
There are, of course, some cons to
working abroad. Beside the issues inherent to living abroad no matter what your
situation (culture shock, anyone?), having
a Washington law license means that you
may not be able to act as, well, a lawyer.
Not only might you not be able to practice in the foreign jurisdiction, but the
system of law in that location might be
so completely different as to be practically
incomprehensible with an American legal
background. Additionally, if you obtain
your work/residence permit based on a
particular job, the loss of that job might
leave you both unemployed and without
lawful residence status.
But in my opinion, the benefits of living and working abroad — not to mention
the potential positive effects on your résumé — far outweigh the negatives. Admit
it: being underemployed somewhere exotic
would be more thrilling than being underemployed wherever you live now. ◊
Arundel Pritchett is a staff attorney with the
Alaska Immigration Justice Project in Anchorage. She can be reached at arundel.pritchett@
akimmigrationjustice.org.
Santa Fe Hosts ABA YLD
Fall Conference
Future Meetings in Las Vegas and Seattle
by Julia A. Bahner
I
n mid-October 2010, new and
young lawyers from around the
country headed to Santa Fe for the
American Bar Association (ABA)
Young Lawyers Division (YLD) Fall
Conference. After a pair of welcoming
receptions, the official meeting began
with a plenary session featuring Chief
Justice Charles W. Daniels, of the New
Mexico Supreme Court, who gave an
overview about the unusual history of
the state’s legal system.
After the plenary session, a variety
of programs were scheduled throughout
the weekend. CLE classes included “101
Basics of Native American Law,” “Drafting
and Using Written Discovery,” “Ethics,
Election Law, and the Elected Official,”
and “Ethical Dilemmas in ADR.” The
conference also featured a timely CLE
called “The Legal Ramifications of the
Gulf Oil Spill.”
Non-CLE workshops included “Real
Life Strategies for Young Lawyers in
Tough Economic Times”; “The Lawyer’s
Role in Disaster Response”; “Developing
Your Practice Through Speaking and
Writing”; and “Traditional Legal Tactics
of a Nontraditional Legal Practice.” An
optional luncheon featured local Seattle
attorney Grover E. Cleveland discussing
his book, Swimming Lessons for Baby
Sharks: The Essential Guide to Thriving
as a New Lawyer. During the luncheon,
Cleveland explained law-firm economics
and encouraged young and new lawyers to
think like business owners to succeed in
their careers.
A diversity program featured a
panel discussing the ABA’s recent report,
“Diversity in the Legal Profession: Next
20
Steps.” The discussion focused on the
diversity initiatives that can be implemented
at the local level through partnerships with
the judiciary and local bar associations.
Panelists included Justice Edward Chavez,
of the New Mexico Supreme Court, and
Raymond Hamilton, assistant U.S. attorney
for the District of New Mexico.
The YLD affiliate roundtable
featured
affiliate
presidents
and
presidents-elect from across the country
sharing ideas about how to increase
membership and member involvement,
increase diversity, and more successfully
implement public-service projects. The
conference also included a dinner-dance
held at the Bonanza Creek Movie Ranch,
a famous film-set location where movies
such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance
Kid, Young Guns, and Lonesome Dove were
shot. The dinner showcased local foods,
with demonstrations from students of the
Santa Fe School of Cooking.
ABA YLD meetings are a great way to
network with other young lawyers who have
diverse backgrounds and experiences. The
midyear meeting is scheduled for February
14–16 in Atlanta. One additional meeting
will be held on the West Coast this Bar year.
The Spring Conference is scheduled for
May 12–14 in Las Vegas. See www.abanet.
org/yld/spring11/ for more information.
The 2011 Fall Conference will be held
in Seattle on October 13–15. Mark your
calendars and look for more information
on the ABA YLD and WYLD websites
and in future issues of De Novo. ◊
Julia Bahner is the immediate past-president of
the WYLD. She can be reached at julbahner@
hotmail.com.
Legal Fiction: The Social Network Entertains,
but Fails Civ Pro Exam
by Eric Chavez
A
ll young lawyers do it, whether
or not we want to admit it publicly. It may happen in crowded
movie theaters, or in the comfort
of our living rooms. The scenario is all too
familiar: you’re watching a courtroom drama, and when the lawyer misses an obvious
objection, you jump up from your seat. You
scream at the actor on the screen like a college football coach whose kicker just missed
the winning field goal during the final seconds of a bowl game.
It’s not your fault — it goes with the
territory. The non-lawyers sitting around
you, who by now are probably moving away
to the far end of the theater, could not possibly understand this impulse. It’s a conditioned reaction resulting from three years
and several months of preparation for issuespotting exams.
Some of us (and our patient significant
others) have learned to embrace the impulse.
And Hollywood, through its obsession with
lawyers and our craft, readily produces flicks
that fail to mirror the realities of our profession, encouraging our public outbursts to the
detriment of our friends and family.
The Social Network, which won Best
Picture at the Golden Globes and is an
Academy Awards Best Picture contender,
is one of Hollywood’s latest films to delve
into the legal world. It is filled with enough
legal gaffes to satisfy even the most neurotic
issue-spotter. The film is a retrospective examination of the creation of Facebook, told
from the deposition table amid the lawsuits
brought against Mark Zuckerberg, cofounder and CEO of Facebook, by Eduardo Saverin, Zuckerberg’s former CFO and
business partner, as well as Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss and Divya Narendra, who
accused Zuckerberg of stealing the idea for
Facebook from them.
If you have not seen The Social Network, do yourself a favor and stop reading
this article now. You will not want to have
the plot spoiled for you. Though it doesn’t
get the law right on every occasion, the
movie is highly entertaining and was very
well-received by critics.
While watching The Social Network, I
could not help but twist uncomfortably in
my seat as Zuckerberg spoke freely, respond-
ing to questions posed by the plaintiffs’ attorneys with malignant shots at the plaintiffs themselves, shots that chopped away
at his credibility as a witness. He does this
throughout the movie, most notably when
he tells the Winklevoss brothers’ attorney
that “his clients are suing because, for the
first time in their lives, things did not turn
out as they had planned.” Every litigator
knows that when a client starts to heat up at
a deposition, it’s time for a lengthy break —
and a stern attorney-client discussion. But
Zuckerberg’s lawyer in the movie never cuts
off, or even cautions, his client.
I began to wonder whether the filmmakers had consulted an attorney before filming
as I watched Saverin’s attorney depose him.
From a practical perspective, this makes absolutely no sense. Anyone with a semester of
civil procedure under his belt knows that in a
deposition counsel for the opposing party ask
the questions, which the deponent’s counsel may then follow up with a few questions
aimed at minimizing damage caused by his or
her client’s previous answers.
But the unrealistic depiction of discovery procedure does not stop there. When
Zuckerberg’s attorney finally has his chance
to question Saverin, the lawyer reveals that
Zuckerberg defended Saverin when asked
about his alleged abuse of a chicken while
enrolled at Harvard. Ignoring the issue of the
obvious breach of attorney-client privilege, in
practice, Zuckerberg’s comment likely would
have come from his own lips, during a followup question from his attorney.
Another set of practical points the film
seems to miss concerns the associate who
attended the deposition alongside Zuckerberg and his primary attorney. Even though
she reveals that she has a mere 20 months
of legal experience, she tells Zuckerberg
that she is a voir dire expert. We’re supposed
to believe that a second-year associate at a
large firm has been sitting in courtrooms
selecting juries during the first year of her
legal career? We know better. As an associate at a large firm in a big city, she would
likely not see the inside of a courtroom for
— at minimum — a few more years.
It gets better. The associate then proceeds to explain the weakness of Zuckerberg’s case to him, recommending that he
21
settle with the plaintiffs. Really? In what
world would this ever happen? We associates know (likely from personal experience) that even in smaller firms, a partner
or senior attorney typically provides critical
counsel such as advice on settlements. And
in the context of litigation involving many
millions of dollars, the world’s most popular networking site, and tech-world celebrities, a second-year associate would at most
have authority from her firm to carry the
senior attorney’s briefcase. I began to wonder
whether the
filmmakers had
consulted an attorney
before filming...
Enough bashing. To the filmmakers’ credit, they do capture the classic law
school ethics exam issue faced by attorneys
representing organizations: when Saverin is
called in by Facebook’s counsel to sign the
company’s articles of incorporation. The
Facebook attorneys fail to inform Saverin
that they represent the company’s interests, not his, when he signs the document.
Meanwhile, Saverin does not realize — and
is not advised — that it contains provisions
that will drastically reduce his ownership
interest in the company.
Despite its unrealistic approach to legal practice, The Social Network is a highly
creative and darned entertaining movie.
The story behind the creation of Facebook is captivating enough itself to carry
the movie, even without the legal battle.
The film’s production value is far above
that of the average Hollywood blockbuster.
And with a soundtrack that even includes
a cut from a Dead Kennedys track, it’s got
something for everyone. Whether you are
a closet issue-spotter looking for a fix, or
simply want to be entertained, you will not
want to miss this movie. ◊
Eric Chavez is an attorney with the Law Offices
of Kelley J. Sweeney in
Seattle. He can be reached
at eric.chavez@
libertymutual.com.
WYLD Seahawks Game Event
Members of the WYLD and
friends met up at McCoy’s
Firehouse Bar & Grill in Seattle
for a pre-game beer before
attending the December 5
Seahawks game at Qwest field
together. The Hawks beat the
Carolina Panthers 31-14.
Left to right: Paul Byrne, Immediate Past-President Julia Bahner, Mike Pellicotti, Past
President Jamie Hawk, Teebah Alsaleh, Aneelah Afzali, Rachael Rusnak, President Kari
Petrasek, Bradon Pence, Membership Outreach Committee Chair Kristy Stell.
Front: Ryan Espegard.
WYLD Holiday Party
On December 9, WYLD
members gathered at Fado
Irish Pub in downtown
Seattle to celebrate the
holiday season.
Above: (back row, left to right) King County
District (B) Trustee Scott Husbands, Sarah
Delanty, Membership Outreach Committee
Social Co-Chair Michael O’Meara, and others
pose for a photo. Front row: Kristy Stell and
others toast the season.
Left: Public Service/Pro Bono Committee
Chair-Elect Ben Nivison, King County District
(C) Trustee Manish Borde, and Chris Wong.
22
Lisa Schaures Receives 2010
Thomas Neville Pro Bono Award
Seattle attorney Lisa E. Schaures, an
associate at Perkins Coie, was chosen
as the 2010 Thomas Neville Pro Bono
Award recipient. The WYLD Board of
Trustees selected Schaures in recognition of her outstanding commitment
to the provision of pro bono services to
those in need.
Schaures coordinates volunteer
attorneys for Perkins Coie’s monthly
clinics with the Compass Center, a
homeless shelter that provides a range
of services and housing options to lowincome individuals in the Seattle area.
She spent more than 240 hours in 2010
providing pro bono counsel to individuals and nonprofits, and more than 360
hours providing pro bono counsel in
2009. Before joining Perkins Coie, she
worked for the University of Oregon
School of Law Small Business Clinic,
providing free legal assistance to Oregon business owners.
You can read more about Schaures
at www.wsba.org/media/releases/wyld-
Left to right: Leah Medway, pro bono counsel for Perkins Coie; Stewart Landefeld, firmwide
chair of the business group; Lisa Schaures; and WYLD President Kari Petrasek.
schaures1110.htm.
The Thomas Neville Pro Bono
Award honors the memory of Thomas
Neville, a Western Washington attorney
murdered in his office by the estranged
husband of a pro bono family law client.
This award recognizes a young lawyer
in this state who has generously committed his or her time and efforts to provide legal services for the public good.
WYLD CLE Express Visits Bellingham
Save the Date: March 26, 2011
Morning — Creditor/Debtor Rights 101
Afternoon — Public-Service Project
Cost: $30
The morning CLE will build basic skills and knowledge about creditor rights, debtor rights, and
client intake. In the afternoon, put your learning into action by volunteering with the LAW Advocates Street Law program. Local residents will be invited to ask questions and seek counsel or
referrals about debt-related legal issues. Attorney participants need not attend both the CLE and
the service project.
• Meet colleagues from around the state.
• Build your skill set around creditor/debtor issues.
• Provide relief for someone with an unmet legal need.
Look for details soon at www.wsba.org/lawyers/groups/wyld/default.htm.
Questions? Contact WYLD Liaison Brian Halcomb at [email protected] or 206-727-8205.
23
WYLD Committee and Program Chairs — 2010–2011
WYLD Committee for Diversity
Shanthi Raghu, Chair
[email protected]
WYLD YMCA Mock Trail
Sean Walsh, Chair
[email protected]
RaShelle Davis, Chair-elect
[email protected]
Megan Valentine, Chair-elect
[email protected]
WYLD Editorial Advisory Committee
Allison Peryea, Editor
[email protected]
WYLD Board of Trustees — 2010–2011
President
Kari Petrasek
[email protected]
President-Elect
Dainen Penta
[email protected]
Pierce County
Chris Maharry
[email protected]
WYLD Youth and Law Forum
Allyssa Wickstrom, Chair
[email protected]
Immediate Past President
Julia Bahner
[email protected]
South Central District
Alma Zuniga
[email protected]
Claire Been, Associate Editor
[email protected]
Sarah Lysons, Chair-elect
[email protected]
WYLD Continuing Legal Education
Ritee Parikh, Chair
[email protected]
WYLD Public Service/Pro Bono
Christina Wong, Chair
[email protected]
Greater Olympia District
Grace O’Connor
grace.o’[email protected]
Southeast District
Nanette Blackburn
[email protected]
Doug Reiser, Chair-elect
[email protected]
Greater Spokane District
Robin Haynes
[email protected]
Southwest District
Daniel Gasperino
[email protected]
Ben Nivison, Chair-elect
[email protected]
WYLD Member Outreach
Kristy Stell, Chair
[email protected]
WYLD Yakima Pre-law
Conference
Alma Zuniga, Chair
[email protected]
King County (A)
Megan Vogel
[email protected]
At-Large Trustee
Cyrus Habib
[email protected]
King County (B)
Scott Husbands
[email protected]
Gonzaga University Trustee
Tatiana David
[email protected]
King County (C)
Manish Borde
[email protected]
Seattle University Trustee
Katelyn Gravelle
[email protected]
North Central District
Beth Bratton
[email protected]
Northwest District
Marie Gallagher
[email protected]
University of Washington Trustee
Dan Velloth
[email protected]
BOG Liaison
Carla C. Lee
[email protected]
Peninsula District
Elizabeth McCormack
[email protected]
WSBA Liaison
Brian Halcomb
[email protected]
Elizabeth Tellessen, Chair-elect
[email protected]
Justin Farmer, Social Co-chair
[email protected]
Michael O’Meara, Social Co-chair
[email protected]
WYLD Trial Advocacy Program
Mary Henderson, Chair
[email protected]
Naomi Otto, Chair-elect
[email protected]
The WYLD is a part of the
WSBA Education and
Outreach Department.
Snohomish District
Robert Grant
[email protected]
For detailed contact information, please visit www.wsba.org/lawyers/groups/wyld.
Editor • Allison Peryea
Associate Editor • Claire Been
Desktop Publisher • Stephanie Perry
Past Editors • Jamila Johnson, 2009-10 • Cynthia
B. Jones, 2008-09 • Shelley Ajax, 2007-08 • Jason T. Vail, 2005-07 • Eric B.
Martin, 2004-05 • Jeannie Huddleston, 2002-03 • David Berger, 2000-01
• Geoffrey Hymans, 1999-2000 • Evan Loeffler, 1995-99 • Erin Moore,
1993-95 • Todd De Groff, 1991-93 • Steve Robinson, 1989-91 • Scott
Jackson, 1987-89
De Novo Mission Statement
De Novo is published for the young lawyers of the Washington State Bar
Association. Its general mission is to provide a forum for the exchange of
ideas, information, and commentary, and to encourage discussion amongst the
readership regarding the broad experience of young lawyers. De Novo additionally serves as a vehicle to facilitate the dissemination of information regarding
member services, public service, programs, and activities of the Young Lawyers
Division.
Readers are invited to submit correspondence and articles. They may be
sent via e-mail to [email protected]. By submitting articles, the author licenses
24
De Novo to publish and permit reprints of the author’s article at the sole
discretion of the editor. The editor reserves the right to edit articles and
correspondence as deemed appropriate.
Reproduction is expressly prohibited unless written permission is
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