Washington State Bar Association

Statement on Federal Immigration Enforcement in Minneapolis In response to recent events in Minneapolis surrounding federal immigration enforcement, WSBA President Francis Adewale and WSBA Executive Director Terra Nevitt issued a statement calling all legal professionals to uphold the legal system and defend the rule of law. Read the full statement here: https://lnkd.in/guMWcTtx

Submit your APEX Award nominees! Nominations are now being accepted for the 2026 WSBA APEX Awards. The awards are spread across 12 categories and honor exemplary members of the legal community, including legal professionals, judges, and members of the public. Nominations are due Feb. 27. Learn more and submit your nominations: https://zurl.co/0DLzx

Re:SearchWA, a new public case records portal for Courts of Limited Jurisdiction Case Management System (CLJ-CMS) is officially live! This system includes district courts in Asotin, Columbia, Douglas, Franklin, and Garfield counties, and municipal courts in Cheney, Colfax, East Wenatchee, Fircrest/Ruston, and Tacoma. If you already have an eFileWA account, you can use those same credentials when using re:SearchWA. If not, new users will need to click "Register" on the top tool bar on re:SearchWA to create a new free account. Once logged in, you can begin searching for cases right away. Click here more information including user guides for attorneys and members of the public and a list of participating courts: https://lnkd.in/gB4qz7vb

New Advisory Opinion on Use of Nonpracticing Lawyer’s Name after Purchase of Practice https://zurl.co/u7K6P

Register for the next free Legal Lunchbox: GR 33 Disability Accommodations in Court CLE at noon on Tuesday, Jan. 27. This program is for 1.50 Law & Legal Procedure CLE credits. Visit the WSBA CLE Store for more information: https://zurl.co/JgMyf This program provides attorneys and courts with a practical overview of Washington’s General Rule 33 (GR 33), which governs requests for disability accommodations in court proceedings.

It was an incredible evening, last night, in Gates Hall at the University of Washington School of Law's symposium titled "State Courts in our Democracy: Preserving the Rule of Law." The evening included keynote remarks from Judge John Chun, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, and esteemed panels of judges, researchers and professors moderated by Washington Supreme Court Chief Justice Debra Stephens and Justice Bobbe Bridge (Ret.). Thank you to the UW School of Law for an engaging, timely discussion about the unique role state courts play in America’s constitutional framework and for outlining pragmatic opportunities for lawyers, students, institutions and community members to help strengthen the judiciary. For further opportunities, visit the WSBA's Rule of Law Ambassador webpage and join our mailing list to be the first to receive updates. Email ambassadors@wsba.org to join. https://lnkd.in/gS_gDkdZ

Grow your community by joining a Section! If you’re a WSBA new admittee you get a one-year membership to a WSBA section for free! Utilize your free membership by joining a section through the CLE store, and the free membership will show up when you check out. By becoming a section member you’ll become part of an active professional community and gain access to an array of exclusive section-member benefits. Over 10,000 WSBA members currently belong to one or more of the WSBA’s 29 sections! Joining a section provides access to a range of benefits like list serve communities; newsletters, reports, deskbooks, and sourcebooks; free and discounted CLEs; and opportunities to engage in the Washington state legislative process. Learn more about section membership and sign up today: https://zurl.co/JkMaV

I love this article by Rachel Hay in last month's Washington State Bar Association's Bar News discussing the rise of #LawTok and how it is influencing law students and the profession. What do you think? "And for the skeptics, #LawTok is not all 'brain rot.' Instead, this all-out frenzy of unfiltered legal (and legal-adjacent) content ... is upending and democratizing the American law school model as we know it. Law students today need not necessarily pay for an overpriced Quimbee subscription or parse through dense Examples & Explanations to better understand personal jurisdiction or Bush v. Gore." https://lnkd.in/gJMznAkM

Navigating the Ethical Use of AI in Law Practice This NWSidebar article provides a summary of the key themes from the Committee on Professional Ethic’s Advisory Opinion 202505 opinion. https://zurl.co/3cS8z

Our office is closed today, Monday, January 19, in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. We will resume regular business hours on Tuesday, January 20.